4 October 2017

Reality distortion field




Steve Jobs was a charismatic and many people who met him refer to what they describe as his 'reality distortion field'. From what I understand, this term, as it applied to Jobs, referred to his ability to convince people that his vision, no matter how outlandish, was possible. In this way he was able to recruit people to his vision when others would have failed.

I thought again about the 'reality distortion field' when I was watching an interview on CBSN with a 'gun expert' who was commenting on the weaponry that Stephen Paddock had assembled for his Las Vegas rampage. Referring specifically to the 'bump stock' attachment, which enables a semi-automatic weapon to fire at up to 9 rounds per second, this 'expert' described the bump-stock as a 'not very practical attachment' and went on to describe it as a 'shooting range toy'.

This is as good an illustration of the 'reality distortion field' which seems to surround many Americans when it comes to their much vaunted 'right to bear arms'. If the bump-stock attachment is 'not very practical' and a 'shooting range toy' I hate to think what Paddock would have achieved had he been serious.

PS The AR15 in the illustration is fitted with a 50 round compact magazine and you can get a 100 round magazine which, at Paddock's work rate, would last all of 11 seconds.