America is trapped in focus group hell.

[Skidmore]

I've just watched two--count them, 2--government reports presented on CSPAN in the slickest marketing presentations ever. The first was Alberto Gonzalez and troupe assuring us that he's keeping the scourge of drugs at bay and protecting the population. Ignore the fact that he's willing to sign off on the torture of people elsewhere. The second is the report on income, poverty, and health presented by the folks who bean count for us. I'm not so much responding to content as I am to the presentation of material itself. I've worked on various government projects over the last 20 years--state and federal. I listen to these presentation and I visualize the meetings and memos and scripting that has gone into turning pig poop into gold.

I've seen gov't organizations spend top dollar to media consultant groups to change the name of the organization so it was more in tune with the times then turn around and complain because there was not enough funding to implement the services they are charged with providing. It has gotten worse, much worse as time has passed. Most of the people I've known in human services over the years are very liberal and tend to vote accordingly. But when human services and nonprofit organization started dealing with the people they are charged with assisting as "the customer" and the funding source as a "consumer" of reports, the ability of the human services sector to do its job effectively began to erode. To top it off, we have ensconced the MBA crowd--profit at all costs-in the administrative roles in our helping professions and government. Cornering market share is what it is all about now, whether it is for type of patient, service, information, or image. It's all about appearances and not substance. We talk about the problems and put a new coat of semigloss on them while the insides are rotting out. Then we wonder why we have poverty and poor health care in this nation.

[LunaSea]

1. I could not agree more....

But I have no idea what to do about it. At some point the whole facade falls in on itself.
The technologies that should free us seem to be doing the opposite. Can we see our own reflection in anything other than this weird fun-house mirror?