Interpret This

There's this radio show where, in addition to music, there's also a dream interpreter, and boy do I use the term loosely, who interprets the dreams of various callers. It might have started as a gimmick, it might not. That's not the point. The point is that no matter what kind of touchy-feely junk the interpreter spouts, people buy it.

This could say that yes, the interpreter knows how to actually interpret dreams. Or it could say that because the interpreter speaks in such crass generalities, like "where in your life do you feel overwhelmed?", "where in your life are you stretching too thin?" and "it might be that you're not spending enough time on yourself," there's going to be a match no matter what. It seems that a lot of people are hell bent on dicarding self examination in favor of gimmicky platitudes fed to them by some hack on the radio.

This interpreter means well. I should say that. But I'll also say the interpreter has made it as far as the interpreter has using the time honored skill of bullshiting. I should know. I used to be a psychic phone friend not once, but twice. A damn good one, before my stupid conscience kicked in.

And now the interpreter, with nothing but spare credentials and a lot of nebuspeak (what candidates do in election years), has managed to teach a course, albeit at a community college (yeah, I'm a snob), on lucid dreaming.

It looks like I'm wasting resources on higher education after all.