The gullible public
(Sent by Marcela Silber, a student from Buenos Aires, Argentina)

Why do we tend to subscribe to the idea that eternal physical youth is a synonym of beauty and well-being? Why do we pursue the standard 'family-house-car' formula believing that we will achieve happiness? The forcefulness of the media turns us into a gullible public leaving aside critical thought and objectivity. Now, why do we keep reading photocopies when we could read from the original?

To begin with, we are constantly being bombarded by TV commercials and magazines which persuade us to buy things that can presumably ensure a life of comfort. For example, the "Call Now" TV commercials aim at making us feel the desperate need to pick up the phone and buy from an anti-age lotion to a slender shaper, and although many people are oblivious to them there is still a gullible public that believes the solution to their problems is there.

It has to be added that people who work in advertising agencies are very cunning to place the gullible public under their sway usually by means of songs with catchy tunes, appealing images and even by resorting to far-famed celebrities, this last one being one of the most effective tools in terms of the influence that renowned stars exert on people. How can we deprive ourselves of buying a shampoo when we see Angelina Jolie advertising it on TV while waving her smooth and glossy hair?

It is generally believed that too much time devoted to reading magazines or watching TV contributes to the detriment of people's critical thought and objectivity. That is to say, the more we spend receiving the influence from external factors, the more we lose our capability to analyze the positive and negative aspects of things, evaluate and ultimately decide whether or not we want to spend our money on a product that is being advertised.

So, why photocopies, then? Why don't we read from the original book, that is, our own search, our own construction of thought based on what we can ascertain? According to dictionaries, the definition of the word 'gullible' is: "easily tricked, too trusting", in this case what the media usually shows is a distorted portrait of reality. Thus, we should be on the alert, if we don't want to be tricked and run over by its powerful juggernaut.