word of the day?

Yesterday I wrote about my Day Zero Project.  I can already cross one of those items off my list:  "dye my hair back to blonde."  I wouldn't say that I am completely finished since the color isn't quite where i want it but its blonde.  I also mentioned that one of my goals was to blog 3x/week and another was to learn 3 new words/week and keep a record of it.  Well...what a coincidence:  I can do a new word using Dictionary.com feature "word of the day" each time I write a blog! 

So today's word of the day on Dictionary.com is:

"Grok"  pronounce "grawk"  and it means:  "to understand, especially in a profound and intimate way.  Slang."

I especially like the quote they have listed:

"The electeds can say "I feel your pain" when the teleprompter tells them to, but our current existential crisis isn't something they grok."

-- Reverend Billy Talen, Alternet, February 27, 2010

 

I looked up the piece since I had never heard of Billy Talen.  He's an advocate for the anti-consumerism movement and has apparently been jailed numerous times in his protest efforts.  Interesting character, though I am not on the same page as Billy Talen. 

 

Marketing companies are successful because people lack self control and cannot fight off the urge to give in to what society tells them they should want/have/need.  There's two sides to every story but I don't see a problem with this unless people allow themselves to be manipulated.  Yes, I have a degree in Psychology and it all makes sense to me how it works, but I think a person is capable of training their brain to withstand all the stimulation it is constantly exposed to.  And if people want to blow their money on an authentic designer bag rather than buying that knock off that is significantly cheaper so be it.  I know I won't be doing that unless I have money growing out of my ears. But that's just me.  I don't see a need for things like that.  And the corporate companies capitalized on people's weakness but I think that today people are generally aware of what's happening. Maybe I'm wrong but I would like to believe that people aren't that naive.