[graciegirl]

Originally Posted by OldDave

You know this is difficult. The reason this phrase works is exactly because of the event it refers to. There aren't many like it.

Also, I'm not sure everyone here inteprets it the same way. Some have suggested it only means you really like TV. So I suggest we see first if we can agree on the meaning.

To me, it's little complicated. It means blindly accepting something, not because you believe in it, but because someone tells you to. It also implies that someone has a bit of power and/or respect over you. Which is why it applies to cults. Eventually you believe the feelings to be genuinely yours and your duty to defend it, in extreme cases to the death.

This is almost to the point of brainwashing.

Now in TV people arrive at this point more freely, even with very persuasive salesmen and people here telling them how wonderful it is. But the real key to me is the total refusal to hear or see anything negative. Not to disagree, but to act as if whatever is negative simply doesn't exist, and that you are to be dismissed for suggesting that it does. This seems to act to justify the decision you made to move here.

That's about as close as I can come to a definition. So, it's pretty darn hard to put all that into a simply phrase. Blind faith and brainwashing have elements that are true, although here brainwashing is a bit harse.

The only other situation I can think of that is similar is Beltway Fever referring to DC. In that case someone get elected to Congress or takes a job there on a mission to change things. But in a short amount of time they are taken in by the power, prestige, the money, the connections or whatever it is, and they become part of the problem.

So perhaps we could lift the "fever" part of that. How about "Village Fever" or if you want to be a bit more cynical, "Morse Madness". Or for those of you living near Brownwood "Mad Cowtown Disease."

I imagine since I have the most posts that part of the "blind faith" MAY be directed at me...or the part about not tolerating anything negative.

I can and will give you a lot of negatives in just a minute but I want to tell you that I TRY to point out INCORRECT information that some folks keep trying to ram down our throats....without the use of modifiers like many, some, often, frequently sometimes etc.

And I can say that many of us have not found many sales people employed by The Villages being persuasive in much of a way other than to show us houses.

Now.

You can buy a much bigger house on a much bigger lot outside of The Villages. Ask Faithful Frank.

You can buy a home in many parts of Florida where you are not restricted in ANY way about who lives with you when it comes to age.

You can buy a home without restrictions about signs you can place on your property.

You can buy a home without ANY amenity fee AT ALL.

You can buy a home that is truly in a GATED community for far less money.

You can buy a home elsewhere where there is entertainment late at night and where you can see the ballet and the opera.

You can buy a home where there are mostly younger people.

You can buy a home where you don't have to deal with choices about 1000 clubs, 32 executive courses, dozens of pools and rec centers.

You really should think long and hard about buying outside of this area where the IRS has not been mulling over whether the municipal bonds are taxable. It could incur an unknown expense in the future.

If you like the ocean, this is not the place for you.

You run the risk of being in someway harmed by a lightning strike as nowhere else in the country are there so many.

There are many sinkholes here, only more over in The Tampa area of Florida.

There is a majority of conservative people who live here.

The country clubs are NOT like the country clubs that many of us left behind. The serve inexpensive food that is o.K. for most of us but NOT wonderful....like many are used to.

People are older here and are not as good at driving in many cases as they once were. People are just plain bad drivers here;the worst I personally have ever seen in my whole life and there is for many a total disregard for any kind of traffic rules.

Many older people are substance addicted who live here.

Many of the Morse family and their friends were charged with poaching at their home in Montana.

The Morse organization was successfully sued for upwards of 40 million dollars by homeowners and lawyers who lived here.

The Morses sold ALL of us land that has swamps, alligators, bugs, and not much else and we bought it.