As a culture we now assume that everyone is supposed to act as their own personal sales and marketing department. You aren't even a complete human being unless

As a culture we now assume that everyone is supposed to act as their own personal sales and marketing department. You aren't even a complete human being unless you do [1]. We also take it for granted that marketing involves a certain amount of exaggeration and deception, and that anyone taken it by dishonest marketing only has themselves to blame, as long as the dishonesty is kept within certain culturally accepted limits that keep getting stretched further and further [2]. Maybe some advertising can get away with honesty, but that's the exception, and it's arrogant to think you're exceptional [3]. In other words, lying about ourselves is now culturally expected. Perhaps in the next generation, an unwillingness to aggressively sell yourself will be seen as just as sad and self-defeating as not completing high school. How do these poor kids not see how dropping out of school affects their life? It's so tragic, we think now. Just sit in the classroom and do your work. Perhaps in twenty years we'll be lamenting the stubborn inability of disadvantaged kids to exaggerate their achievements. How can these poor kids just sit around doing their schoolwork and not sell themselves aggressively? It's so tragic. Just smile manically and say you're an awesome, passionate rock star. Is that so fucking hard to understand? What are parents teaching these days? Shit, we should really be funding Head Start. [1] http://www.danpink.com/books/to-sell-is-human/ http://www.danpink.com/books/to-sell-is-human/ [2] This link might not have much substance, but it's slick and vivid: http://geekologie.com/2012/01/bogus-burgers-fast-food-false-advertisin.php http://geekologie.com/2012/01/bogus-burgers-fast-food-false-... [3] Honesty in advertising is such an unthinkable idea that it has been relegated to the place our culture reserves for statements that are so false we cannot imagine anything falser, the bogus trend piece: http://www.steamfeed.com/is-the-next-frontier-in-advertising-becoming-honesty/ http://www.steamfeed.com/is-the-next-frontier-in-advertising...