Posted by farid from customer-148-233-93-48.uninet.net.mx (148.233.93.48) on Monday, September 08, 2003 at 10:39AM :
In Reply to: Business Plan posted by farid from customer-148-233-71-121.uninet.net.mx (148.233.71.121) on Sunday, September 07, 2003 at 12:57PM :
The Devil's Toothpaste and Sargon Dadeeshoo
Just remembered a fascinating chapter in Americana. Several years ago there was a boycott of Procter and Gamble's, the huge conglomerate that makes Colgate Toothpaste among a slew of products. In all seriousness religious types around the country became convinced that the company's logo was a mark of the Devil and they'd be damned if they'd support old Satan by buying his toothpaste. The company tried to keep it quiet for some years in the beginning as they wrote letter after letter and sent company reps to reassure the groups of concerned citizens here and there who'd banded together to save the world from Evil toothpaste.
It's an interesting side-light that, without getting it quite right, people nonetheless had an inkling that Satan and huge corporations were a natural fit...each complimenting the other nicely. But word got to the press eventually and predictably even more people joined the boycott. The company's bottom line began to be seriously impacted, though I think their greater concern was the dangerous realization among the public that they could make CEO's hop-to whenever they felt like it. Finally Procter changed it's logo...that's after hiring several experts to comb through the bible, write papers on Devil worship and its signs and how far an American corporation was from such a thing. There had been other successful boycots in history, like the one against Coor's beer which I never did figure out...but for years you couldn't find Coor's beer west of the Rockies.
But the Devil's involvement with Procter's was a far more serious thing because we're in LooneyTunes Land with religion...you have to be careful because people get extra stupid and murderous where God's concerned. Point is the corporation was brought to its knees. They tried everyting, whatever was asked of them to head the thing off. Had they been directly involved in politics, which wasn't as obvious back then, they would have glady gotten out of the racket, if it was asked of them.
After all, to a corporation money is the most important thing...politics and buying and selling Democracy is just a way of getting more of it...they could give a shit about Democracy outside of its utility, bottom dollar-wise. You think BetBooHoo values Democracy for anything other than the chance it gives him to play petty tyrant..a chance he and Firas and Hanna couldn't get in their own lands because they had bigger ones there?
And while we're on the subject, no Iraqi team of killers ever went to Modesto looking to shoot Sargon Dadeeshoo. More than likely he, like some others, contacted the State Department offering to provide their patriotic, ass-kissing services to drum up support among the "Assyrian" population in support of the upcoming slaughter of the Iraqi people...enough of them Assyrians. Casting about for some plausible "plot" that would smear Saddam even more and scare the good citizenry Sargon concocted the "I'm-so-important-in-Ceres-and-such-a-threat-to-Saddam-and-the-Baath-Party that he sent assassins to silence me"...to MODESTO? The million bucks he won didn't cost anyone in America anything..it was taken from the money already stolen from Iraq. Thus go our Leeders.
-- farid
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