Hate that song...
I think we're all buying to some extent, we all need reassurance, a pat on the back from someone and giving out this attention makes us feel reassured. We matter, we're important.
And I don't even think it matters if we know it's a deception, we want the deception because it makes us feel important.
As for what you were saying about the antihero....well, we are closer to him than to Superman. We're flawed, we're more likely to fall than rise. It only make sense they'd make a character who was closer to the reader, no? Because heroes sell, but for how long? At some point, I'll grow tired of looking at Batman or whoever and see how I'm failing in comparison. I want someone who tells me I'm doing alright...
Great post, sweetie! :)
The affections of a pretty girl are more important than the personality of that same girl.
Yes it does. Before they wanted to create an ideal, an aspiration but perhaps it started to make us feel bad when we recognised it was unattainable and therefore, unbelievable. We stopped suspending our disbelief so, they adjusted, got a little more clever.
The internet is full of deceptions that play on our desires and I think that we are getting worse at seeing them.
It used to be that people strived for the unattainable, that they set their goal on something higher than themselves, and just didn't accept that it was undoable.
Now, not so much. Now, we're bringing our goals down to our own level.
Hmm I'd say our desires define us, largely, at least in the moment, so there will always be a desire to play upon, something someone will take advantage of. We can't stop that from happening at all, but maybe we can regulate how much we're taken advantage of.
I think it is a symptom of the 'everyone gets a prize' culture. Every expects to meet their goals and get a return which requires a reduction of goals to what one believes they can do which is generally lower than the reality of what is possible.