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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."
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EXCELLENT POST. GREAT MINDS THINK ALIKE. SO RIGHT ON TARGET ABOUT THE BELTWAY FEVER.....etc.
Blind faith is never a good thing.......in the long run.
Act in haste, repent at lesiure goes the old saying...........