Ambiguity & Truth: MIlton Glaser on The Road to Hell
Milton Glaser asks if our bad habit of lying to strangers suggests an existential threat.
“…To quote Elaine Pagels in her book, The Origins of Satan, “The social and cultural practice of defining certain people as ‘others’ in relationship to one’s own group may be, of course as old as humanity itself.” While marketing is obsessed with the way groups behave it doesn’t generally conceive of those groups as being our fathers, mothers, sisters or friends, this would make the job far too complex. Rather, these groups are thought of as ‘markets’ with generalized characteristics that make manipulating them seem ethically acceptable. One thing seems consistent, the greater the psychic distance the easier it is to persuade people to act against their own self-interest.
The issue seems more significant than ever. Today, given the aggressive distortion of truth and reality that pervades our civic and business life.”
miltonglaser.com