Calling David Lynch.
I learned today via Steve M. at No More Mister Nice Blog that more than twenty people received serious burns (some second and third degree) by walking across hot (2000 degrees) coals at a Tony Robbins seminar.
Now, most of us "walk across hot coals" only metaphorically, as in "I would walk across hot coals rather than see Jack and Jill with Adam Sandler. But the people at the Robbins Seminar actually do it, apparently to prove that they can do anything." And Steve M. suggests that there's a political metaphor in this:
What's the matter with Kansas? Why do so many voters favor politicians whose policies hurt them? Why are we possibly on the verge of electing our second reverse-Robin-Hood Republican M.B.A. president this century? Why is a guy like Rick Scott in the governor's mansion rather than prison?
Because a lot of us are much too willing to believe whatever a rich, successful guy tells us -- especially when he tells us that our problems are exclusively our fault and not the fault of people like himself.
And lest you remain skeptical of this kind of thinking, some of the injured people blame only themselves. The sister of one of the burn victims said:
Mr. Robbins had “worked all night to prepare people” before the walk. If some people were injured, she said, “it’s not his fault.”
That's one reason people support scam artists like Robbins and Romney. They believe Romney when he says:
“We’re accused, by the way — in our party — of being the party of the rich,” Romney said. “And it’s an awful moniker, because that’s just not true. We’re the party of people who want to get rich.
(note -- it appears that the Romney-bot was programmed with Dashiell Hammett dialogue that day. There's no other explanation for him using a word like "moniker.")
I don't think most people really believe they can "get rich." Mostly they just want to do a little better than "get by."
But a lot of them listen to snake-oil salesmen like Romney and vote for him -- the political equivalent of walking across burning hot coals.