"Human beings are myth-makers. For countless thousands of years they have built legends around the living and the dead, until some names in history are now lost in the legends, and some, we now know, were never more than names to begin with. Out of all this, ancestor worship, idolatry of leaders, spiritual loneliness, a sense of their own inadequacy in a vast and terrifying world--out of these they made their gods; and the gods that have gone out of fashion, like the Greek, the Roman, and many other constellations, we now call the creatures of mythology."

So began an editorial written by the late Vardis Fisher, on April 22, 1945. He was referring to the death of FDR, expressing dismay as to the seemingly uncontrollable emotional display going on all around him. Among other things, he lamented the disappearance of the intellect by so many leaders and pundits, to say nothing of the rest of the population.

Have things improved nearly 56 years, and multiple generations of technology later? You be the judge.

Victimhood keeps expanding, and for me, it has become burlesque.

There are numerous calls for slavery reparations. The first big questions, of course, are who's on the hook, and for how much? The present Federal government could argue that since it supposedly fought a war about this issue, it's off the hook. Perhaps it would be possible to identify all descendants of slave owners, and get them to pay up. This could prove embarrassing, though, since there were some black slave owners, as well. There were also white slaves.

Another potential source would be those West African countries, where the slaves came from. After all, there wouldn't have been a slave trade unless the tribal chieftains had waged constant battles, to gain prisoners who could be sold to the highest bidder. Trouble is, most of the current countries didn't exist back then. But, I'm sure the plaintiff's lawyers will think of something...

As it is, they have come up with a new Holocaust reparation theory. It seems the Nazis used certain IBM products to categorize their prisoners. Presto, IBM is liable for untold damages!!

What a neat idea. Find any product used by the Nazis that can be traced back to a big company, and then sue.

On the Clinton front, the Dems are really piling on, and that's fine with me. Where were they before January 20th? Emotionally tied in with Bubba, I guess. Occasionally, you will hear a comparison being made with wrongdoings in a former (usually Republican) administration. This is the "two wrongs make a right" argument. Pure emotion, again.

People never seem to learn. It didn't work in grammar school when you told your teacher that Billy was also throwing spitballs, and it didn't work when you told your wife that other guys cheat now and then.

But maybe the biggest emotional drive is to be part of the group.

Marshall Mathers, aka Eminem, sells a lot of product to teen and pre- teen music aficionados, and is suddenly embraced by the Recording Academy's gliterati. With the notable exception of songwriter Jimmy Webb, the conformist, uh, artists of the Industry were falling all over themselves praising this grand new talent. There's nothing worse than appearing unhip.

To be sure, wanting to belong cuts both ways. By all rights, if Mathers truly cared about his bona fides as an independent outlaw rapper, the last thing he would want is to be honored by this tired band of self-congratulatory stiffs. In reality, he just did what the suits told him to do. Some gangsta.

One group that doesn't have folks clamoring to join anymore is the cadre of online investors. Schwab and other firms report markedly decreased activity. Did it finally sink in that putting your brokerage account on that 19 percent credit card was not a good long term strategy?

Will mankind ever reach the time when we use our brains preferentially over our emotions? Perish the thought! Any marketer of any product knows that buying decisions are based primarily on emotion. Since "nothing happens until somebody sells something," we'd better hope that the triumph of the intellect is a long way off.

Based on a study of history, we needn't worry.

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