There's a concept in business strategy called "blue ocean" versus "red ocean."  The red ocean is where everyone's already swimming — it's crowded, brutally competitive, and the water is bloody because the feeding frenzy never stops.  The blue ocean is open water.  Uncontested. Room to breathe, room to grow, room to actually thrive.  You'd think the choice would be obvious. And yet, overwhelmingly, most people keep diving headfirst into the red.

Why?  Why do we do this?  I've been sitting with that question for a while now, and I think the answer runs deeper than laziness or ignorance.  It's woven into our psychology in some pretty fundamental ways.  I must confess, I have some degree of authority on such subjects because I am a Certified Archetypal Pattern Analyst, educated in a Jungian Depth Psychology institute and I’ve made an in-depth, near lifelong study of human behaviour and consciousness.

The Comfort of Consensus

Psychologists call it social proof — the cognitive shortcut that tells our brains, "if everyone's doing it, it must be right."  There were some pretty eye-opening conformity experiments done back in the mid-twentieth century — I'm thinking of work around group pressure and perception — where researchers found that people will deny the plain evidence of their own eyes rather than contradict the group consensus.  They asked participants to compare line lengths, embarrassingly simple stuff, and found that a significant portion of them would give the wrong answer just because everyone else in the room gave it first.  That sounds like real stupidity, but it’s not exactly that.  Instead, it’s a deeply wired survival mechanism.  For most of human history, going with the group was how you stayed alive.  The herd wasn't always right, but breaking from it was dangerous.  Often, the loner who wandered off got eaten.  The one who stayed with the group usually didn't.  We see that with schools of fish, balling-up in the thousands to reduce the statitical chance of getting swallowed.  Not that fish calculate statistics, but instinct drives such behavior, you know - the “safety in numbers” concept.   So, evolution rewarded conformity.  The problem is we're still running that ancient software in a world that no longer requires it — and in fact, in many modern contexts, it actively works against us.  The herd today isn't a group of hunter-gatherers navigating a savanna.  It's millions of consumers being herded by massive marketing budgets toward products and choices that serve corporate interests, not theirs.  The "predator" isn't a lion anymore.  It's a board of directors with a planned obsolescence strategy!  Really, the masses need to wake up to the realities we are so often blind to.

The Illusion of Safety in Numbers

There's a related phenomenon psychologists talk about, around concept sometimes called “diffusion of responsibility”, and it bleeds into something I'd call diffusion of consequence.  When we make a choice that everyone else is making, we feel insulated from the negative outcomes.  We’ve all done it, and I referenced food choices in my previous blog, you know what I mean, the little voice in our head that says, ”How bad can it be? Everyone uses this stuff."  The shared nature of the poor choice somehow makes it feel like less of a mistake, or at least less our mistake.  I remember thinking that way about food, honestly.  Years ago, if you ate what was in the grocery store — the normal stuff, the stuff everyone bought — it didn't feel like you were poisoning yourself.  It felt somehow conforting and familiar.  I can tell you, the grocery store thrill of buying all the tastey but guilty pleasures is a big one for me.  When we are young, the repercussions are hidden, when we get older well then, they become more obvious and the cost to our health and wellbeing becomes more obvious.  Back then (and even now to a lesser degree) the accountability was invisible because the harm was slow and dispersed and nobody was pointing a finger at you specifically.  You were just one fish in a very large school.  This is exactly how toxic industries survive.  Not by deceiving everyone at once — that's too obvious. But by making sure their product is the default.  The thing on every shelf.  The thing your father used and his father before him.  Once something is the default, it doesn't have to justify itself anymore.  The burden of proof shifts entirely to the challenger, the maverick, the aware one.  For example, you’re in the grocery store shopping with your partner, you are aware that a specific food is not a smart choice and your partner tells you to knock it off, “why are you so suddenly so health conscious, just buy it, you know you want it, and your’re going to eat some other junk anyway”.  Now that’s something I can attest to first hand!  Oh brother, it’s these little things that really add up over time.

Familiarity Isn't the Same as Safety 

There's a well-documented effect in psychology — I believe it came out of research on emotion and cognition somewhere in the latter half of the last century — around what's sometimes called the simple or mere exposure effect.  The basic finding is that people develop preferences for things simply because they've encountered them before.  Repeated exposure creates a sense of comfort and even affinity, completely independent of whether the thing is actually good for you. Think about what that means in a marketplace context.  A brand that has been on shelves for 40 years doesn't need to be better than its competitors.  It just needs to have been there.  You've walked past it a thousand times.  You saw it in your grandfather's workshop.  It's familiar; and familiarity, in the absence of critical thought, masquerades as trustworthiness.  The coatings industry runs on this.  The big-box store shelf is a masterclass in the mere exposure effect.  Same brands, same basic chemistry dressed up in new cans with new graphics every few years, projected forward on the momentum of familiarity alone.  Nobody's asking hard questions in that aisle; they’re just grabbing what they recognize.  Repeating the same old pattern, even if it’s a new choice of brand, they still reach for the same old failed coating paradigm.

Loss Aversion, Commitment Bias, and the Fear of Letting Go

There’s a bias towards loss aversion.  Once we make an investment of sorts whether it be financial, reputational, a relationship, or some learned behavior, we don’t want to let it go even when it’s detrimental to us or doesn’t serve growth.  There was research done on this, as I recall in the filed of behavioral economics, and it eventually won a Nobel Prize if I'm not mistaken, around the finding that humans feel the pain of a loss roughly twice as intensely as they feel the pleasure of an equivalent gain.   This asymmetry has enormous implications for behavior.  For example, when someone has been using a particular product or method for years — maybe decades — they've built up a psychological investment in it.  They've recommended it to friends.  They've staked some portion of their professional identity on it.  Switching doesn't just mean choosing something new; it means, on some level, admitting that the old way was wrong.  We here at Odie’s Oil see this every day, especially among artisan woodworkers and flooring contractors.  I am sorry to call them out specifically but I simply have to because they simply don’t seem to realize or want to admint the extent at which their being stuck in familiar so called choices is hurting them, their businesses, and their families and customers.  So, getting back to the psychology if this, the brain treats change as a loss even when it’s for the good.  Like breakiing up from a toxic relationship.   The brain percieves the change as a real loss even when it’s actually a gain.   Add to that the “sunk cost” fallacy — the very human tendency to over-weigh past investment when making future decisions — and you have a powerful cocktail of inertia that keeps you stuck in the same situation.  "I've used poly for 30 years, I know how it behaves, I know what to expect."  Yes.  And you know it yellows and peels and fills your lungs with VOCs while you're applying it!  But the known bad thing often beats the unknown good thing because at least you've already paid the emotional entry fee on the known one, right?  For the love of God, try, try, and try again to get out of that stuck mode, build a habit of challenging the status quo when it doesn’t serve your overall wellness and success.

Hidden Manipulation, The Manufactured Landscape

None of this is entirely organic, by the way.  These psychological tendencies are real, but they're also actively exploited.  Major manufacturers spend enormous resources making sure their products are the default choice — in stores, in trade schools, in trade associations, in false green-washing NGO shemes, in architectural spec sheets, in the memory of every woodworker who learned their craft in a shop that used their product.  This is what I'd call the manufactured landscape of consumer choice.  You're not actually choosing freely when you grab the familiar can off the shelf.  You're navigating a field that has been deliberately shaped to funnel you in that direction.  The display placement, the ubiquity in every store or supply house, the brand relationships with influencers, the product endorsements embedded in trade education — it's an ecosystem engineered to perpetuate itself.  Blue ocean alternatives don't just have to be better. They have to be better enough to overcome all of that engineered blind-consensus.   And even when they are, most people never even look in their direction because the herd's gravitational pull is so strong.

What It Actually Takes to Change

I'm not going to end this by pointing at a miracle cure for what binds us mentally, that’s a process that an Archetypal Pattern Analyst or a really good shrink or a truly aware mentor can help with.  Breaking the herd pattern takes something specific: a genuine moment of cognitive dissonance that can't be explained away.  For me it was watching my brother treat a plank of wood and seeing a result that didn't fit my mental model of how finishing was supposed to work.  That dissonance opened a crack.  And once you look through the crack, you can't fully un-see it.  For other people it's a health scare that finally makes them question the food they’ve been shoving down their throats for decades.  Or a financial disaster that makes them question the market trend.  Or a project that fails in a familiar way for the fifth time in a row (what comes to mind for me is always restaurant tables and bartops whose coatings are breaking down).  Something has to make the cost of not questioning higher than the psychological cost of questioning.  There's a concept in psychology around what happens when incoming information doesn't fit your existing mental framework — when the framework itself has to be revised rather than the information just dismissed.  In pattern analysis and the science of transformation we call it reorientation to the field, a realignment.  At first, it’s uncomfortable.  It's supposed to be.  A perturbing influence is intentionally applied (or a traumatic event takes place in life) for the purpose of resetting the system.  That discomfort is the sensation of growth, and it can sometimes be quite painful because it usually doesn’t happen in a vacuum.  The question I keep coming back to is this: does it really have to take a disaster?  Can awareness itself be enough?  Can understanding why we're drawn to the shark-infested water make us willing to at least look toward the open ocean?  I genuinely believe the answer is yes.  But it requires the one thing the herd mentality is specifically designed to suppress: the willingness to stop, look around, and ask whether the crowd you're following actually knows where it's going.

Blog post written by Michael Tinghitella, Director of Sales and Odie's Copywriter

I have to admit, the first time I saw my brother treat a floor plank with Odie’s Oil (at that time he hadn’t named it), I didn’t know what to make of it.  I was so used to urethane plastic coatings and varnish that I had a hard time getting my head around a finished piece of wood that looked and felt entirely natural and “unfinished”.  How could this be?  It mustn’t be actually finished.  Does this stuff actually do anything?  How can this possibly hold up and protect the wood? I know James too well, he’s going to chastise me for admitting that those were my initial reactions, but those were the doubtful thoughts that ran through my mind. 

Understanding the Odie's Oil Controversy: What's Really Happening?

In recent months, searches for "Odie's Oil controversy" have increased as misinformation spreads across social media platforms and AI-generated content. This article addresses these claims head-on with verified facts, regulatory context, and industry transparency.  These negative commentaries are far less than 1% of the over 100,000 positive commentaries about the brand and its products.

The Origin of Misinformation

Like many successful brands that challenge industry norms, Odie's Oil has faced coordinated efforts to spread doubt and fear among potential customers. These efforts include:

The reality is that Odie's Oil represents a disruptive force in an industry long dominated by petroleum-based, high-VOC products containing toxic chemicals. This disruption has made the brand a target for those invested in maintaining the status quo.

What Is Odie's Oil? Product Overview and Safety Profile

A Revolutionary Wood Finish

Odie's Oil is a food-safe, non-toxic surface finish and polish developed by James Tinghitella after 45+ years of research, development, and field testing. While primarily associated with wood finishing, the product works effectively on multiple hard surfaces including metal, leather, concrete, stone, plastic, and more.

Core Product Characteristics

Composition: A proprietary blend of food-grade oils and waxes, including modified tung oil processed through specialized techniques and combined with essential oils and natural waxes.

The "Food Safe" Designation Explained

When a finish is labeled "food safe," it means that once fully cured, the product is safe for surfaces that come into contact with food. Odie's Oil goes further by using only food-grade ingredients from the start—the same quality ingredients approved for human consumption at appropriate concentrations.  Although Tung oil is not a food use product, it is in fact sometimes used in pharmaceutical applications.

Regulatory Facts: EPA vs. FDA and Ingredient Disclosure Requirements

One of the most common sources of confusion in the "Odie's Oil controversy" stems from misunderstanding which federal agencies regulate surface finishes and what disclosure requirements actually exist.

Understanding Which Agency Regulates Wood Finishes

Ingredient Disclosure: What the Law Actually Requires

Critical Fact: Non-toxic, natural products that do not contain carcinogenic, poisonous, or high-VOC ingredients are NOT required by law to disclose their complete ingredient lists.

Regulatory disclosure requirements exist specifically for products containing:

Why Odie's Oil Doesn't Require Full Disclosure:

Because Odie's Oil contains none of these regulated substances, it is not legally required to publish a complete ingredient list. The proprietary formula is protected as a trade secret by the U.S. government—a standard practice for non-hazardous formulations across all industries.

This is not "hiding something"—it's the normal legal framework for safe, non-toxic products. Companies are only mandated to disclose ingredients when those ingredients pose potential health or environmental risks.

Addressing False Claims: Legal Actions and Investigations

Setting the Record Straight

Despite what some AI-generated articles or social media posts may claim, Odie's Oil and founder James Tinghitella have never faced:

• Lawsuits related to product safety
• EPA enforcement actions
• Consumer protection investigations
• Regulatory violations or penalties
• Class action litigation
• Government inquiries of any kind

Why These False Claims Persist

 Once false information enters the digital ecosystem, it can be perpetuated across multiple platforms, creating the illusion of legitimacy through repetition.

The Competitive Landscape Context

The wood finishing industry has been dominated for decades by large chemical manufacturers producing petroleum-based, high-VOC products.  Relatively recent shifts to low-VOC and "No-VOC" products that still contain questionable ingredients have become dominant, but low-VOC is somewhat of a misnomer and a "look here, not there" game played by the finish industry as the noxious chemical VOC's can hurt you, even in tiny amounts, while the VOC's of a rose, rosemary or other herbs, flowers, fruits and essential oils can be health promoting.  The chemical companies have:

When a small, innovative company like Odie's Oil demonstrates superior performance with safer ingredients, it threatens established profit streams. This creates incentive for competitive misinformation campaigns.

The Industry Transparency Problem: Odie's Oil's Call for Honesty

Challenging the Status Quo

Odie's Oil hasn't just created a superior product—the company has become an advocate for industry-wide transparency and consumer safety. This advocacy has made the brand even more of a target for established interests.

What Odie's Oil Advocates For:

Why This Advocacy Matters

By calling attention to industry practices that prioritize profit over safety, Odie's Oil has positioned itself as a disruptor. This advocacy:

• Educates consumers about safer alternatives
• Challenges the legitimacy of toxic products
• Threatens the business model of established manufacturers
• Creates motivation for competitive attacks and misinformation

The "controversy" around Odie's Oil is, in many ways, evidence that the company's message is being heard—and that it threatens powerful interests invested in maintaining the status quo.

The Power of Direct Communication: Fostering Trust and Correcting Course

In a landscape riddled with misinformation and vague claims, Odie's Oil believes in the value of straight talking and direct answers. This philosophy extends beyond ingredient transparency to customer support, where honest and clear communication is paramount for achieving the best product results and building lasting trust.

While some companies shy away from direct feedback to avoid perceived "butt hurt feelings," we embrace it. Our goal is to empower users with the correct knowledge, even if it means addressing application errors directly. For instance, if a customer applies too much finish and fails to buff it off properly, leading to an unsatisfactory result, our approach is to explain precisely where the application went wrong and how to correct it.

This commitment to directness ensures that customers aren't left guessing or frustrated. It saves time, reduces material waste, and ultimately reinforces the quality and effectiveness of Odie's Oil when applied correctly. It's about a partnership where transparent advice leads to successful outcomes for everyone.

Real User Experiences: What Customers Actually Say

Verified Performance in the Field

While misinformation circulates online, Odie's Oil has successfully covered over 190 million square feet of surfaces worldwide. Real users consistently report:

Common Criticisms Addressed

The Difference Between Criticism and Misinformation

Legitimate product criticism is valuable and expected. No product is perfect for every application. However, there's a clear difference between:

The former helps consumers make informed decisions. The latter is designed to create fear and doubt through false claims.

How to Evaluate Wood Finish Safety: A Consumer Guide

Questions to Ask About ANY Wood Finish

When evaluating the safety of wood finishes—whether Odie's Oil or any competitor product—consumers should ask:

Red Flags in Product Marketing

• Vague terms like "natural" or "eco-friendly" without specific ingredient information
• Products that claim low-VOC but still require respirators and ventilation
• Finishes that require multiple toxic products (strippers, sealers, topcoats)
• Paid for Certifications which any company can pay for - another NGO money making scheme
• Finish products with two parts (an oil blend and a catalyst to be added to it)  The devil is in the second part.
• Marketing that focuses on fear rather than facts

Green Flags for Safe Products

• Third party lab test results
• Clean MSDS sheets with ingredients that are not hidden behind a "code" or tolerance levels
• Clear information about what the product does NOT contain
• Transparent communication about application and safety
• Long-term performance data
• Real user testimonials from professionals and consumers
• Company advocacy for industry-wide safety improvements

The Bigger Picture: Innovation vs. Established Industry

Why Disruptive Products Face Resistance

The Odie's Oil controversy is part of a larger pattern seen across industries when innovative products challenge established markets:

In each case, the pattern is similar:

1. Innovative product offers superior performance or safety

2. Established industry feels threatened

3. Misinformation campaigns attempt to create doubt

4. Regulatory confusion is exploited to suggest wrongdoing

5. Eventually, consumer demand and factual information prevail

 The Chemical Industry's Stake

The wood finishing industry is worth billions of dollars annually. Large chemical manufacturers have:

• Decades of market dominance
• Established relationships with distributors and retailers
• Significant investments in petroleum-based production facilities
• Regulatory frameworks designed around their products

When a small company demonstrates that superior performance is possible without toxic chemicals, it threatens this entire ecosystem. The response is predictable: protect market share through competitive attacks.

Consumer Power and Market Transformation

Despite resistance from established interests, consumer demand for safer, more effective products drives market transformation. Odie's Oil's growth—covering over 190 million square feet in just a few years—demonstrates that:

The Role of Information Literacy

In the digital age, consumers must develop critical thinking skills to evaluate product claims and controversy:

The Odie's Oil controversy is a case study in why information literacy matters for consumer decision-making.

 Navigating the Noise: Influencers, Commentators, and the Quest for Truth

In the digital age, consumers are constantly bombarded with opinions and reviews, making it challenging to discern reliable information, especially concerning specialized products. Social media influencers and online comment sections have become powerful platforms, but not all voices carry equal weight, expertise, or integrity.

The Problem of Paid Endorsements and Undisclosed Agendas

A significant challenge in the online review landscape is the prevalence of paid endorsements and hidden agendas. Many individuals, whether influencers with large followings or anonymous commentators, may be compensated to promote or disparage certain products without disclosing their financial ties. This creates a distorted perception, where seemingly organic opinions are, in fact, sponsored content designed to sway public opinion rather than offer genuine insight.

Unqualified 'Experts' and the Limits of Opinion

Beyond financial incentives, a core issue lies in the lack of qualification among many online 'reviewers'. Just as you wouldn't entrust a 17-year-old new driver to test-drive a Ferrari supercar and provide an expert assessment, complex products like specialized wood finishes require a deep understanding of wood products, shop tools, product chemistry, application techniques, material science, and long-term performance. Many online commentators lack this foundational knowledge, leading to:

• Superficial observations that miss critical technical details.
• Misinterpretations of product instructions or safety data.
• Comparisons based on personal bias rather than objective criteria.
• Spreading unverified claims or repeating misinformation without critical analysis.

How to Evaluate Online Information Critically

For consumers, developing information literacy is paramount. Understanding that an opinion, no matter how loudly proclaimed, does not equate to expertise is crucial for making informed decisions and seeing through the digital noise.

Conclusion: The Truth About Odie's Oil Controversy

Summary of Key Facts

The Odie's Oil controversy, when examined against factual evidence, reveals clear distinctions:

The Real Controversy:

The actual "controversy" isn't about product safety or regulatory compliance—it's about market disruption. Odie's Oil challenges:

• The dominance of toxic, petroleum-based finishes
• The planned obsolescence business model
• Industry practices that prioritize profit over consumer safety
• Lack of transparency about harmful ingredients

What This Means for Consumers

When you search for "Odie's Oil controversy," you're encountering the predictable response of an established industry to disruptive innovation. The misinformation you find is not evidence of wrongdoing—it's evidence that the product threatens powerful interests.

Making an Informed Decision:

- Evaluate products based on facts, not fear

- Understand regulatory requirements and what they actually mean

- Recognize the difference between legitimate criticism and competitive attacks

- Seek out real user experiences from verified sources

- Consider the motivations behind negative claims

- Ask yourself: who benefits from spreading doubt?

The Path Forward

As consumers become more educated about product safety and environmental impact, demand for truly non-toxic alternatives will continue to grow.  Brands like Odie's Oil that prioritize transparency, safety, and performance over profit maximization represent the future of the industry.

The "controversy" will fade as facts prevail over misinformation. In the meantime, consumers have the power to make informed choices based on verified information rather than competitive propaganda.

The bottom line: Odie's Oil is a safe, effective, innovative product that has disrupted an industry long dominated by toxic chemicals. The controversy exists not because of product problems, but because the product works too well and threatens established profit streams.

Choose based on facts. Choose based on performance. Choose based on safety. The truth speaks for itself.

Frequently Asked Questions About Odie's Oil Controversy

We cordially invite you to any or all of our educational programs including:

• The Odie’s Life Zoom Cast at 7:30 PM Eastern every Thursday (meet your peers using Odie’s Oil, learn, get your questions answered and talk shop)
• One on one Application Training Discussions via phone or video conference - before, during, and after becoming a user, we are ever available to take your calls!
• Free On-the-Job-Site Training with Paul Golenya (yes, he will fly to you and work with you on your flooring projects)
• NWFA Odie’s Oil Exclusive Training Programs
• Ongoing NWFA Schools where you can see for yourself, side by side application training comparisons.

Anyone in business these days, knows just how hard it is to start and then grow to becoming a leader in your area.  Competition is stiff, and it seems the scales are weighted against you, and in a way they certainly are.  It’s either government regulations that stand in the way of starting, seed capital, or the big boys squeezing you out - no matter what the industry.   If you’ve already attained the pinnacle of success in your field, then you probably can still remember all the investment in work-effort, pain, capital, and sacrifice it took to get there.  Either way, we at Odysseus Cornwall’s Outstanding Oils & Waxes®, aka, Odie’s Oil® have been facing the very same bumpy road. 

As entrepreneurs that boot-strapped the business from zero to where we are today, still small but growing in global presence - we share in your pain and in your triumphs.  Your success, if you align with us, is our success.  We want to help you succeed, to put more money in your pocket on every job.  Odie’s Oil products were originally made for our own personal use, then for our business of manufacturing mahogany hurricane shutters, decks, and courtyard gates, then eventually our wide plank flooring mill where we made solid super-wide-plank floors from both domestic and exotic woods for clients globally.  

Odie’s Oil has stood the test of time on floors well over 25 years - never needing to be refinished and with project call-backs almost completely non-existent.  That’s the value of a good finish, one designed to be the very best and not to just line the pockets of giant corporations. 

Where do we shine?  On every floor, deck, and wood product it has ever been properly applied to. 

What is that shining?  It’s ultimate safety for the users and the environment.  It’s ultimate production sustainability.  It’s ease of use.  It’s ultimate durability and protection.  It’s ultimate beautification.  It’s ultimate versatility in effect, sheen level and color.  It’s ultimate tactile feel.  It’s ultimate cost effectiveness in coverage ounce per ounce, dollar per dollar.  And lastly, it allows for more room in your van or your storage shelf. 

May we ask, why would any flooring professional use, recommend, or purchase anything else?  It simply makes no sense, unless you understand just how indoctrination and marketing works to gain crowd acceptance.

When we were asked to bottle Odie’s Oil by Woodcraft corporate office some 14 years ago because they couldn’t get green wood treated with Odie’s to check no matter what they did to it — we had no intention of marketing our finish other than on our own projects.  Back then you could build a decent size business with little investment in capital for marketing, simply by using social media platforms and posting like crazy.  But just like everything else in the business world today, our efforts are overshadowed by global conglomerates. 

It’s all pay to play now, it doesn’t matter if you build over 125,000 followers or even a million - if you’re not paying the social media companies hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars like the giants are, you’re not getting seen nor heard.  In the very same way, you’re not able to buy an NFL Super Bowl ad.  That’s how big corporations keep everyone else who is not one of them, out of the game and suppressed, small, and non-threatening to their marketshare monopolies.  That gives them the ability to peddle any old product they want no matter how deficient it may be, how detrimental to human and environmental health. 

Consumers and contractors alike are offered false choices, irrelevant variants on the same deficient chemistry, whatever serves to profit the board of directors and stockholders.  It doesn’t matter if you have the greatest product or the greatest invention in the world - if it’s not theirs, you are going to be swimming up hill and against the current - you’re like a small fish swimming upstream facing a giant waterfall.

The purpose of this article is not to whine about how hard business is for an emerging brand.  It is instead to rattle you a bit, help you wake-up from your slumber, and recognize the facts of the matter, how we are all being played, year after year, day after day. 

The old saying, “there’s nothing to fear but fear itself”, well, it applies to switching to a better finishing paradigm as well. 

Don’t let them keep you in the dark, don’t buy the hype and slight-of-hand, wake up to a better way instead of the flavor of the day.  So many finish products are marketed as different new tech this year over last year and many flock to the new fad only to ultimately have to admit the result, the film layer atop of the wood, performs in the very same way as last year’s latest fad and ultimately it fails.  Stay alert, because once you catch on to the deficits, they will offer you a new-fangled version.  

Look, we are here to help you transcend all that bull.  If you have been a flooring professional for ten years or more you should be tired of all the finish industry games by now, if not, well then you’re simply not paying attention at all.  If you are stuck in such paradigms, like film forming finishes of any ilk, then your customers are suffering, and you are losing out whether you realize it or not!

Do yourself and your colleagues a favor - simply join us in any of our educational programs, it’s completely free. 

Call us and talk to us, or just sign up online.  If you walk away from the deficient paradigms being promoted and sold over the past decades and wake up to an ancient paradigm made many times better, you will earn way more on every job, protect your health, enjoy the finishing process, typically win every bid, and deliver a far superior product to your customers in every way.  You have nothing to lose except some false mental constructs, and everything to gain!  Please friends, join us today!  It’s to your benefit.

Truth be told, the myriad finishes on the market over the past 75 years or so are all utilizing the same basic technology, designed to line the pockets of finish manufacturers but not to deliver optimum results, durability, or safety.

What is that technology?  

Polyurethane and the chemistry of a urethane bond.

Does polyurethane provide durability? 

Rather than durability, we posit that polyurethane provides planned obsolescence.  Here at Odysseus Cornwall’s Outstanding Oils & Waxes, aka Odie’s Oil, one of our mottos is, “Planned obsolescence is unethical.”  Suppose you were to buy a new car, and the car company sold you a coating designed to require you to repaint your vehicle over a relatively short period of time.  Would you consider that unethical, or even worse than unethical?  

Does polyurethane actually ruin wood floors?  

Well, at one level, no, because it is removable.  At another level (in total), yes, because every time it is removed by sanding, it wears down the floor a bit, shortening the life of the floors.  Hardwood floors should last the life of the building and not need replacement.  Unfortunately, the manufacturing sector of the industry has opted to incorporate planned obsolescence into many of the flooring options, whether it involves the floor planks themselves (such as "engineered hand-scraped") or the finish options provided.  We’ve become so accustomed to the disposable culture that we have forgotten our roots and the value of posterity.   If you live in New England or a similar place, you know the value of homes and other buildings dating all the way back to the 1600s.  With the high cost of building materials these days and the supposed scarcity of resources, it is all the more important that things are made to last and not destined for the landfill in a relatively short time.

Why do urethane bond-dependent finishes fail and not last?

The reason for failure lies in the very aspect that polyurethane pushers promote as its strength.  The problem is that it’s not a strength, it’s a fatal flaw.  The reason for this is that urethane creates a film layer on the surface.  That film requires a scratch pattern to grab onto, and that bond will eventually break due to normal usage (abrasion) and chemical and microbial deterioration.  Such finish layers, whether they are "enhanced" with ceramic, aluminum oxide, graphene, or some other addition, are a separate surface layer with minimal integration into the wood itself.

Can you go into detail why the urethane bond finishing paradigm is illogical and detrimental from the perspective of professional on-site finishers and consumers alike:

• The cost of material per square foot for professionals isn’t insignificant;
• The cost of application for consumers, including having to leave the home or building and stay with friends, family, or a hotel;
• Toxicity both during application, clean-up, drying, curing, and over the years of use and natural abrasion, as isocyanate and many other ingredients remain a health concern;
• Contaminates landfills when disposed of;
• Noxious smell, and poisonous fumes, whether aromatic or de-aromatized
• Fire/combustion risk
• Lack of enhancement to wood (doesn’t stabilize, doesn’t extend the life of wood)
• Potential application failures and defects include

            - overlap

            -orange peel

            - trapped dust and dirt, pitting

           -uneven application and resultant thickness

           -moisture discoloration appears as milky beneath the surface layer

• Yellowing
• Unnatural white plastic scratches
• De-lamination
• Microbial and chemical breakdown of the finish coating
• The need to re-sand the floor every few years, leading to the need for floor replacement in the distant future
• Doesn’t prevent movement of floor planks, doesn’t offer any additional stabilization
• Doesn’t permit spot repair of damaged planks as it will never match
• Repairs are difficult and costly to address
• Limited sheen level options from brand to brand
• Requires a pre-stain step if color is specified.

What are the weaknesses of Odie’s Oil, the true oil finish, also known as the Structural Finish or the Stabilizing Finish?:

You would expect there to be some weaknesses, but amazingly, there aren’t any inherent in this product which is at the pinnacle of the superior finish modality it exemplifies.  So answer your question:

• None of the above-listed urethane finish weaknesses
• Some installers complicate the process by failing to follow our simple instructions. The most common mistake made is applying too much Odie's Oil to the surface and failing to buff it all off after application.  However, excess finish on the surface can be corrected easily.

Occasionally, we have seen installers utilize chemical-based pre-stains, Japan dryers, and things like that in conjunction with our finish, and thats a big mistake because they simply serve to mess up the job, contaminate the natural non-toxic nature of our product.  Plus, any other material put down beneath our product simply serves as weak link and disrupts the molecular cross linking and integration of our product into the wood structure.

In comparison, what are the strengths of Odie’s Oil finish products?:

In counterpoint to the weaknesses of urethane bond dependent finishes such as all polyurethanes and Euro hard wax oils which are essentially hybrid polyurethanes in disguise - let’s look at the strengths of Odie’s Oil so that there is no confusion or questions.:

• Lower cost of material per square foot - just 21 cents on average
• Property owners can (if applied properly) remain on the premises while Odie’s Oil is applied.
• Since there are no toxic chemicals or noxious fumes (neither aromatic or de-aromatized), the air is completely safe to breathe during and after application.
• One application is all that is needed, while multiple applications can be done, for durability there’s no need for multiple “coats”
• No exposure risks, no toxicity to applicator or consumers ever
• Environmentally benign from cradle to grave - no pollutants at all even during production at our factory!
• Smells like an EO spa, Odie’s contains therapeutic essential oils
• Stabilizes wood, reducing movement by around 90%, eliminating a key risk factor (movement) and the resulting call-backs.   A contractors' biggest fear is movement and the resultant claims.  Odie's offers flooring professionals a huge financial benefit by eliminating the most feared risk factor.  
• No ambient air combustion risk with Odie's Oil. Just don’t leave oil-soaked rags lying around.  As with any finish rags put them in a fire-proof container because all oils are oxygen scavengers.
• Odie’s Oil is a structural enhancement for wood, making it stronger, more resilient, water- and chemical-proof, more resistant to abrasion, and longer-lasting.
• No overlapping, no orange peel, no uneven waves - no risk of varying thickness as it is not a layer on top but an internal enhancement of the wood; no discoloration from trapped moisture; no bubbles; no dust or dirt contamination on the finished surfaces; no paneling. 
• Odie’s waterproof floors while still letting it breathe…
• No yellowing over time nor via sun or light exposure 
• Floors can be spot repaired, individual planks changed out any time in the future without having to re-sand the entire floor
• No sanding limits
• No unsightly white plastic scratches from dragging furniture, dog nails, or kids toys.
• Can’t delaminate, chip, flake, or peel off because it is not a film layer
• Won’t display an unsightly breakdown by chemical cleaners or natural microbial exposure
• No need to ever re-sand the floor again!  Just buff more on and off if desired, years and years after the initial application. 
• Odie’s lasts many-many times longer than any other finish, equating to lower overall costs as well as greater convenience to property owners.
• Achieve any sheen level with ease
• Coloring floors and finishing is an easy single-step process with Odie’s Oil. Just mix our creative color mineral pigments into the oil and apply in one easy step to color and finish the floor.
• Easily adjust your color in either direction after it is applied.  Infinite color adjustment.  We all know how often clients change their mind. With Odie’s system, it’s not a problem.
• Our color system offers you unlimited color options, ranging from transparent to opaque, and they will never fade due to UV exposure.

To wrap it up, can you explain why polyurethane became the leading finish modality?  How did it become the leading finish paradigm?

There are a few factors involved in this sad situation:

First, it’s a matter of corporate culture at the level of finish manufacturers.  You have to realize they are essentially chemical companies and they are being treated in a way as satellites of the chemical giants.  They sell a ready made ingredient deck or base blend, and then the brands make small rather insignificant variants by adding one oil or another, or some other additional chemistry.

When a manufacturer sells what would otherwise be toxic waste for exorbitant prices, they net tremendous profits that give them plenty of money to mess with the minds of the masses, create a false reality and norm, propagandize, set "the industry standards", and run dirty tactics against any competing paradigms.  For example, we at Odie’s Oil can replicate leading European Hard-wax Oil formulations for a fraction of their selling prices.  We can manufacture their product for around seven dollars per unit, while those products are sold to flooring professionals for $170 to $250 per unit!  And in addition, the comparative coverage metrics also reveal their excess profiteering. 

We could make giant margins like they do, but we choose not to take advantage of people nor to miseducate and misdirect the industry.  We refuse to profiteer by peddling planned obsolescence, selling toxic production waste byproducts, and reaping huge financial benefits from the misfortune of consumers, contractors, and the global environment.

When a company manufactures products with planned obsolescence in mind, they not only rob their customers but profit repeatedly by assuring replacement purchases.  We at Odysseus Cornwall’s Outstanding Oils & Waxes®, also known as Odie’s® Oil, believe that planned obsolescence is immoral and unethical.

            When you generate so much profit that you can actually fund associations to promote your paradigm, you can establish it as an industry standard and enshrine it in industry guidelines.The finish coatings industry is no different from any other in this regard, and the associations supporting each industry are simply doing their jobs, working with what is available to them, hence they often unknowingly support unwholesome paradigms.  After decades of experience in such a business, when they finally realize the truth, it’s already too late for them to take a high ground; instead, they opt to support whatever is there, good or bad.  They feel forced to take a neutral stance as their very survival seems to depend on it.  So, this is how bad paradigms get institutionalized. 

Educators, in every realm and venue, simply pass along what they think are the facts, and government agencies, specifiers, and news media all follow along with little awareness of the underlying history and real facts of the matter - again, in whatever field it may be.  Why else would government agencies specify obsolete and destined-to-fail finish coating on historic restoration projects?  Miseducation becomes endemic, and the result is everyone suffers.  It would be far better (in an ideal world) to somehow lead any such industry into more sustainable, honest, and logical paradigms.

Readers of our message have the opportunity to examine the physical evidence, as there is finally something to compare the existing unwholesome paradigm to, and that something in the finish and wood products industry is Odie’s Oil.  The physical results, circumstances, and evidence don’t lie.  The evidence speaks for itself.:

People do get sick from polyurethane finishes whether they are “green or not”; 

Euro Hard-wax Oils are in fact film forming urethane bond finishes nearly just as much as any water based or oil based polyurethane; 

Film forming finishes of every ilk are urethane bond finishes and they all ultimately fail.  

Considering these facts and the pros and cons listed above, why would any finishing professional continue to use urethane bond containing finishes instead of Odie’s Oil?

Hopefully, flooring contractors and pre-finished wood floor manufacturers will wake up to these facts and make the switch for the good of all.  They will enjoy more profits instead of giving them to the poison pushers, and they will deliver a better product to their customers while enjoying far less headaches.  And let’s not forget how sustainable the use of the Odie’s Oil paradigm will be for property owners, tenants, and the environment itself.

So began the Great American Experiment…The sovereignty of the United States of America brought on and continued what is called the Great American Experiment.  It’s been a success for almost 250 years and that successful experiment became a world-wide inspiration to join the revolution of freedom and independence.  The pursuit of freedom and the respect for the individual ultimately led to the demise of slavery.  Freedom and individuality for all bred great innovation, and great innovation created wealth and strength. This is how the USA became the greatest superpower the world has ever known. 

The Great American Experiment was just that…Great! A great success!  It was not the group of states, nor the states, nor the counties, cities or communities that made the USA great. It was the individual!  Each individual’s freedom and free will enables one to innovate. Also, the wealth and strength of the American nation is not only credited to the individual but also to a moral code, yet not just any moral code created by the government, but one based on Judeo-Christian values. These values are ingrained into our western civilization and are a large part of our general culture. These values are what connect most of the systems, groups, and communities together and keep them at peace with each other no matter what culture one comes from. Pretty much all of us want to be accepted and loved, and many of us want to be a part of something. It’s in our general nature as humans to be part of a family, tribe, community or whatever it may be. We may choose a system within our culture that suits our perspective way of thinking or profession, craft, or trade, etc. Our free will to be what we want to be is what makes us individuals, and we must not forget that the individual is what makes our perspective groups strong.

The unique qualities of each individual truly make the group stronger, and this insures the groups’ survival.  We need our individuals: blacksmiths, woodworkers, warriors, hunters, mothers, fathers, doctors, etc. - whatever one’s chosen craft, trade or profession may be. All these individual professions add to the survival of the social system, but when too much value or focus is emphasized on the system, group, community, club or state, the individuals can be lost, banished, canceled or erased, and this ultimately can lead to the demise of the system, group, community, club, state or whatever the social structure may be. We see this often with current trends, fashions, politics, products and even schools of thought. Individuals flock to a trend, current fashion, or way of thinking and sometimes they lose themselves and their identity to the system.  This is the danger of the collective.  The collective is often easily manipulated by an internal or external force.  Visualize a school of fish swimming in unison away from a predator or visualize an intelligent predator herding a group of individuals into its trap to ultimately devour them. A farmer can herd sheep or cattle into a corral for the slaughter very easily.  It’s much harder for the farmer to individually chase down each single animal for capture.  This basic concept is used to take advantage of the masses. Trends, styles, and current social charges can all be used to manipulate and control. Governments, as well as corporations and other entities, large and small, all use this basic technique to control and manipulate, whether it be for the good of the group, for  self-profit or sometimes for pure evil intent.  

We could go deeper into the social structure which can vary from society to society, but the purpose of this piece is to bring awareness of the importance of the individual in a system. An over emphasis and focus on the community like what we see in our current culture can be very dangerous.  Treating the community as a single collective organism removes the individual. The emotion of the collective organism can be powerful and extremely dangerous especially when no individual is ultimately accountable. This (the passion of the collective) can be used for extreme malice and destruction.  Visualize the recent riots or the current “cancel culture” as examples.  Too easily the group’s collective emotion can be manipulated and herded to do the bidding of an entity with a goal, and that goal always seems to be the devouring of some tangible aspect of the community. It can be their skills, their money, their property, or any number of things, including intellectual property or even freedom and social status.  It all depends on the group and the ultimate goal of the entity whether it’s regarded as a good or bad actor.  

Here is a personal example of a nameless entity steering a group in a way that diminishes that community or degrades it. As an artisan and an artist, I personally find the recently popularized term “maker” to be demeaning. Allow me to explain.  Maker is a term that is used to describe something that executes the construction and/or assembly of a specific provided design or recipe. A maker is not necessarily an individual; it can be a mindless machine like a robot. I view the term “maker” as denigrating because it removes the human individual. I believe the term was incorporated into our modern culture as a way for a designer to establish “ownership” of the specific design that the “maker” assembles for the designer.  The term is not respectful.  A “maker” is not just a “maker”.  Most are innovative individuals. A better and more respectful term would be artisan. Artisans use their skills and tools of the art or trade in a multitude of ways which includes, among other things, the creative processes involved just to execute the production of the design. In most cases, the artisan will design and craft tools, jigs, and processes to efficiently execute the production and assembly of the design.  This is an artform in itself and deserves a better appreciation.  In most cases it takes a wisdom that only comes from experience. The individual artisan is an innovator, a designer, and in most cases an engineer.  

The phrase “maker community” seems too empty to describe a community of these artisans. I cringe every time I hear the term. I spent a lifetime perfecting my artform to only now be called a “maker”. Nothing special- just one who makes copies- a robot, a printer… not an artist. In a world where computers, robots and machines are steadily replacing our workforce, it’s only a matter of time before they replace the so-called “maker”.  It is easy to replace a maker, but you can never replace an individual, artist, artisan, or experienced craftsman.  There is a certain wisdom that comes with the human experience that is ultimately reflected in an artisan’s work.  A collective of makers, robots, or machines is easily controlled. A collective or community made up of individual artisans is not easily controlled. If we artisans are all just “makers” and not individuals… if we are all just machines making, performing mindless tasks, or even just labeled as such, what keeps those who wish to herd us or control us from devouring us, using us up, and replacing us when we are no longer useful.  Robots and machines are much like slaves in that they are given no pay or respect, no love or compassion. They are just used until broken beyond repair and ultimately thrown away and replaced.   Are you beginning to see the picture? Now expand my personal example out into the greater society and you can begin to understand why the individual is the most important unit of society. The parameters of society should be such that the individual persons, as opposed to groups, are empowered to contribute unique talents rather than being mere pawns manipulated by shadowy entities. Individuals should have the agency to make their own choices, and it is through personal responsibility and initiative that an individual will thrive. Each person is an integral unit in the groups and communities that make up our society, and as such, the empowered individual strengthens the group, and balance can be achieved.

Our society has come full circle. We fought and earned our freedom to only, in our current culture, give it away for the comfort of a collective without accountability. But, as with humanity throughout the ages, tides turn and the zeitgeist shifts, morphs and is reimagined yet again.

"No Man Is an Island" by John Donne

Footnotes

1. John Donne, “No Man is an Island”

2. Jean-Paul Sartre, No Exit January 30, 2025 

ChatGPT said:

The Silent Auction: How Amazon and Google Are Undermining Trademark Rights 

In the ever-evolving landscape of digital commerce, trust is everything. A trusted brand, carefully built over years, can be undone in moments by a troubling practice gaining traction on platforms like Amazon and Google: the sale of competitors’ brand names as keywords for targeted advertising. This practice is more than an ethical breach—it borders on outright trademark infringement, yet it continues virtually unchecked.

The Legal Quagmire: Trademark Law vs. Big Tech

Trademark law, rooted in the Lanham Act, prohibits the use of a trademark in commerce if it causes consumer confusion or dilutes the brand's distinctiveness. This fundamental protection has been the backbone of intellectual property law for decades. However, keyword advertising exists in a gray area where innovation outpaces regulation.

In cases like Rosetta Stone Ltd. v. Google, Inc., the courts highlighted the potential for consumer confusion when competitors' ads appear in response to searches for a trademarked term. The court acknowledged that consumers might mistakenly associate those ads with the trademark owner. Yet, Google argued—and the court accepted—that its role was merely as a facilitator, not a direct user of the trademark in commerce.

“I wonder if the court overlooked that Google must have sold the Rosetta Stone tradename for use by a competitor of Rosetta Stone for money. Wouldn’t that make Google a violator of Rosetta Stone’s intellectual property (its name) by profiteering off it? Unfortunately, courts return poor decisions far too often for several reasons that we won’t get into in this article.” - Mike T

Other rulings, such as Network Automation, Inc. v. Advanced Systems Concepts, Inc., have emphasized the context of the advertisement and whether it misleads consumers. While nuanced, these rulings have emboldened platforms to continue profiting from practices that many argue are inherently exploitative.

The Players in this Problem

1.The Platforms (Amazon, Google): By enabling the purchase of competitors’ brand names as keywords, these tech giants create a bidding war that inflates their ad revenue while placing the onus on businesses to defend their trademarks. They profit from confusion, even as they claim neutrality.

2.The Advertisers (Competing Brands): Companies that participate in this practice are equally culpable. By buying a competitor’s name as a keyword, they intentionally intercept traffic that should belong to the rightful trademark owner, banking on consumer confusion to drive sales.

Real-World Consequences

The impact of this practice reverberates far beyond theoretical debates.

For Consumers: Misleading ads erode trust and increase frustration. A consumer searching for a trusted brand like "Brand X" may end up purchasing from an unrelated company, believing it to be an affiliate or the original source.

For SMEs: Smaller companies with limited budgets often cannot afford to outbid competitors for their own brand names. They also lack the resources to engage in protracted legal battles against platform giants or rival advertisers.

For the Marketplace: When brand names lose their sanctity, the entire market suffers. Trust is a fragile currency, and this practice devalues it for everyone.        

Precedent and Accountability

The case law is still evolving, but some precedents stand out:

A Path Forward: What Needs to Change 

1. Strengthen Legislation: Lawmakers must explicitly address the use of trademarks in keyword advertising, closing the loopholes that currently allow this practice to flourish.

2. Hold Platforms Accountable: Amazon and Google must bear responsibility for profiting from consumer confusion. Transparent ad policies, combined with proactive monitoring, should replace the current laissez-faire approach.

3. Empower Brand Owners: Companies must vigilantly monitor how their trademarks are used online and take swift action against violators. Legal mechanisms, such as cease-and-desist letters or filing UDRP complaints, should be streamlined for smaller businesses.

4. Educate Consumers: Consumers should be informed about how keyword advertising works and trained to recognize potentially misleading ads.

Time for Action 

This is not just a trademark issue—it’s a question of ethics, accountability, and the future of fair competition in digital commerce. Platforms like Amazon and Google, which have built their empires on the trust of businesses and consumers alike, must recognize their role in maintaining a fair marketplace.

As legal professionals, brand owners, and consumers, it’s time to demand better. Hold platforms accountable. Push for tighter regulations. Advocate for a marketplace where trust isn’t auctioned to the highest bidder.

Together, we can ensure that intellectual property laws remain as robust in the digital age as they were in the physical world.

In the modern landscape of global economics and governance, the term "corporate fascism" has emerged as a controversial yet increasingly relevant descriptor for the entangled relationships between large corporations, financial institutions, and political entities. A form of governance exists where corporate interests dominate and dictate public policy, often at the expense of democratic values and individual freedoms. This phenomenon is all too prevalent in today's world, especially in the arena of globalism as promoted by the World Economic Forum (WEF), the EU, and even political parties in America. This article explores how these relationships create paradigms and behaviors detrimental to citizens, highlighting key examples, theories, and the psychological manipulation involved in maintaining this system. 

Understanding Corporate Fascism 

The term "corporate fascism" is often used to describe a scenario where corporations wield excessive power over government policies and societal norms, leading to a synthesis of corporate and state interests. Mussolini famously defined fascism as the "merger of state and corporate power," a definition that resonates with today's reality where corporations often operate with impunity, influencing legislation and public opinion.

The Corporate-State Nexus: Lobbying and Political Influence

A significant mechanism through which corporate interests infiltrate politics is lobbying. According to OpenSecrets, corporations and industry groups spent over $3.5 billion on lobbying in the United States alone in 2020 (OpenSecrets, 2021). This investment translates to a powerful voice in shaping legislation that benefits corporate profit margins over public welfare. 

Consider the case of the pharmaceutical industry, which has been able to influence health policy to protect its profits. The 2019 "Bipartisan Budget Act" included provisions that curtailed the government's ability to negotiate drug prices, a move heavily supported by lobbyists from Big Pharma. This policy manipulation affects healthcare costs and exacerbates inequalities within the health system (Sullivan, 2019).

The Role of Banks and Financial Institutions Financial institutions play a pivotal role in this dynamic, often prioritizing shareholder returns over ethical considerations. The 2008 financial crisis is a stark example of this; banks engaged in risky behaviors that led to a massive economic downturn, yet taxpayers bailed them out. This bailout further entrenched the belief that banks operate above the law, creating a culture where corporate malfeasance is tolerated, if not rewarded (Tooze, 2018).

Psychological Manipulation and Public Perception

Manipulating public perception is a key tactic employed to maintain corporate control. Through advertising, media ownership, and strategic messaging, corporations craft narratives that promote consumerism and conformity while undermining critical thinking. In addition, censorship by big tech, news media, and social media platforms, skewed algorithms, and search engine results further exacerbate the problem, tilting public perception and opinion in favor of corporate overlords, profiteers, and centralized government. Such censorship is ultimately a psyop designed to sway public opinion and generate a consensus in defiance of the facts and truth.

Advertising and Consumer Culture

The advertising industry is a primary vehicle for promoting consumerism. According to a report by the American Psychological Association, targeted advertising can shape perceptions and behaviors, often encouraging materialism and dissatisfaction (APA, 2019). This "keeping up with the Joneses" mentality fosters a cycle where individuals feel compelled to consume, often prioritizing corporate interests over their own well-being. The ubiquity of product formats, formulations, and chemistry are examples of advertising creating a false sense of choice among satellite brands peddling the same product with slight differences, squeezing out competition by overwhelming consumers and retailers with redundancy. This serves to help big businesses such as BASF and Monsanto, Bayer and Proctor & Gamble, stockholders and owners like Blackrock, Vanguard, & State Street to set product paradigms and squeeze out entrepreneurial innovation.

Media Ownership and Information Control 

The concentration of media ownership further complicates the landscape. A handful of corporations control vast swaths of news outlets, influencing the information that reaches the public. This consolidation of media power creates an echo chamber, reinforcing corporate narratives while marginalizing dissenting voices. As media scholar Robert McChesney argues, this results in a "systematic bias in favor of the interests of corporations" (McChesney, 2013), but also of political parties, movements, and ideologies such as wokeness, social justice, critical race theory, and special interest groups or social movements. Corporations and governments both find ways to capitalize on such movements, often to the detriment of civilization, public safety, peace, and harmony. Societal events such as inner-city riots are often stoked for the purposes of devaluing real estate values of entire blocks and neighborhoods so that corporate vultures can swoop in, purchase the properties at literal fire-sale prices, and redevelop the properties for immense profit according to Katherine Astin Fitts, former US Assistant Secretary of Urban Housing & Development for Housing.

The Creation of False Crises 

Manufactured crises such as anthropogenic climate change or claims of excess carbon in the atmosphere defy both scientific evidence and logic, yet they are created and aggressively promoted in service to new forms of money, taxation, socialist ideologies, and control of markets in service of leading fascist corporations and government control of populations. Entire secular-style religions coalesce around such ideas, creating tremendous strain and conflict among the populace.

Furthermore, a division is sown by creating racial strife and false claims of inequity, while social injustices are inflated and embellished to control the masses and distort the politics of nations. Multinational corporations play a key role in promoting and reinforcing such illusions and deceptions to profiteers and create new markets for goods and services that are otherwise unwarranted. Readers may have some such deceptions they believe are true, while there are others they reject. Nonetheless, it's mostly a game played by big corporations, NGOs, and the government for the purposes of attaining profits, power, and control.

The Creation of Detrimental Paradigms 

The interplay between corporations, banks, and political structures fosters harmful paradigms that can be detrimental to societal well-being. Many detrimental paradigms arise from strategies found in communist, socialist, and fascist political literature and lectures such as Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto, Lenin's writings, the lectures of Cloward & Piven, and Alinsky’s notorious "Rules for Radicals". The purpose is to subvert capitalism and democracy in a stealth fashion under the guise of environmental activism, sustainability, and social justice. Generally, all such social, political, and economic engineering simply serves to the detriment of the lower and middle classes, the free markets, and economic growth, degrading personal and national sovereignty and personal upward mobility. These causes, solutions put up by such groups, and the resultant models benefit oligarchs, international banks, and financial giants, and the further consolidation of state power where corporate and political fascists get to pick the winners and losers. The result is mass suffering and subjugation of the populace.

The Environmental Crisis

Corporate interests often prioritize profit over environmental sustainability. The alternative energy industry, for instance, has historically overplayed the role of atmospheric carbon in relation to climate change and lobbied for regulations, grants, taxation, public spending, and other boondoggles for the purpose of profiteering off otherwise natural events such as variations in solar and climate patterns over the course of time. The result is a public that is often misled about the urgency of climate action, perpetuating a cycle of "corrective actions" that inadvertently damage the environment, slow productivity efficiency, and drain the public trust financially.

The government has, at times, acted in the public interest, such as when it required factories to add filtration systems to their smokestacks for the purposes of removing soot, toxin-laden ash, and noxious chemical fumes. So, regulations can certainly play a constructive role. However, too often in today's world of globalization, for the purpose of the elimination of the nation-state in favor of a totalitarian world government dominated by corporate interests and oligarchs - the intentions are more often disguised under a false mask of altruism and flipped instead to malevolent purpose and values.

A whole army of ill-informed climate activists, mostly with good intentions, have managed to disrupt and damage commerce as well as ecosystems. Examples include atmospheric geoengineering in the forms of stratospheric aerosol injection (commonly known as chem-trails or spraying of metals and nanoparticles from jets and planes), marine cloud brightening, solar radiation modification (SRM), also known as solar geoengineering or (albedo modification) or sunlight reflection, and atmospheric carbon sequestration (using machines to suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere).

Perhaps the two most troubling of these attempts to disrupt mother nature and "compensate" for what is promoted as man's creation of imbalance are stratospheric aerosol injection and sequestration of carbon dioxide. Putting heavy metals and nanoparticles into the atmosphere is poisoning us, our soil, and our waters, contaminating wildlife with aluminum, strontium, barium, and graphene. Heavy metal contamination of the soil and water where it otherwise is not found at the levels currently recorded is disrupting the ecosystem and causing the collapse of insect populations to the tune of over 80 percent, and making it difficult for reforestation plantings to take.

Carbon Dioxide accounts for less not more than 0.04% of the Earth's atmosphere in 2024, it is at a reasonable level to facilitate healthy forests, flora, and agriculture; a bit less could spell crop failures, as greenhouse growers usually keep their CO2 levels at 1,000ppm versus our current 400ppm levels outdoors. The air we exhale is typically 40,000ppm (about 100 times the atmospheric level) and toxic levels of atmospheric CO2 would be about the same 40,000ppm. Since plants need CO2 to survive, the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by large carbon capture machines may possibly send the Earth into a death spiral. While social pressure, propaganda designed to promote a green tech economy, and pseudo-science to misinform the public causes miseducated politicians and academics to fold under pressure and insist on funding such fool's errands as windmills both on and offshore (killing countless bird populations and disrupting whale migrations). The belief in anthropogenic climate change is passionate among believers of the climate change theory that mysteriously went from “global warming” to “climate change” when models proved both faulty and rigged. Leaders in academia, politics, and corporations are often influenced by financial gain, groupthink, and simply being part of the popular climate change cult. The real science demonstrates that people would do well to consider geothermal, astronomical electromagnetic events, solar activity, and solar cycles as far more impactful drivers of climate than man’s industrial, agriculture, and transportation sectors which have a far greater impact on pollution levels than climate.

Erosion of Worker & Civilian Rights

Another alarming trend is the erosion of worker rights in favor of corporate profits. The gig economy exemplifies this shift, where companies like Uber and Lyft classify workers as independent contractors, denying them benefits and job security. This model not only exploits workers but also creates a race to the bottom in labor standards (De Stefano, 2016). Likewise, governments and NGOs that promote mass migration, illegal immigration, and human trafficking degrade the economies, wages, and job markets of otherwise sovereign nations. They also monetize human suffering by supporting the trafficking of people, especially women & children, raising crime rates, degrading public health and safety, eroding the cultural identity of nations, subverting political institutions, destroying civil norms, and creating a scarcity of goods and services. Effected cities and towns experience unsustainable and explosive population growth and choked infrastructure, which in turn raises prices of both commodities and properties, further enriching oligarchs and corporate fat-cats at the expense of all others.

Conclusion: The Call for Awareness and Action

Corporate fascism presents a significant challenge to democratic principles and societal well-being. The blurred lines between corporations, banks, and politics, coupled with sophisticated strategies for public manipulation, create an environment where citizen interests are often sidelined. 

You can be assured that whether it is the foods available at the grocery store, the monetary policies of the government, the lending policies of banks and credit card companies, the chemicals used to treat surfaces in your home and workplace, the prescription drugs available and the exorbitant price of medical treatment, the military-industrial complex and the wars we participate in, or the parroting of the mainstream media talking heads - it's all deeply influenced by corporate fascism. The admitted economic blueprint of the Democrat party for decades is aptly detailed in what has become their handbook, The New Industrial State, by John Kenneth Galbraith. Anyone questioning my description of corporate fascism and my pinning of it on the Democrat party (and I will say equally, several factions of the Republican Party, such as Neocons, RINOS, and Globalists) should read Galbraith's book.

As citizens, it is crucial to foster awareness and demand accountability from both corporations and governments. Advocacy for transparency in lobbying, media ownership, and corporate practices is essential to reclaim democratic values. Only through collective action and informed engagement can we begin to dismantle the structures that promote corporate fascism and work toward a society that prioritizes the well-being of its citizens over profit.

Toxic Products & Big Business versus Compassionate Entrepreneurship

From companies with literally NAZI roots to toxins intentionally injected into our food and water to the finish coating choices in the big box, paint, and hardware stores – corporate fascism is one of the main drivers of the options we find in the marketplace. They limit choice through dominance, acquisition, subterfuge, and generating consensus no matter how illogical or foolhardy, as long as it's profitable to them. Remember, what is most likely detrimental to you is highly profitable to them. Refuse to participate whenever possible!

There are small businesses and innovative natural products emerging that swim upstream against the tides of corporate and political forces, which often serve to protect monopolies and corporate interests. These businesses are creating honest, toxin-free products without deception, standing firm in the face of opposition from corporatists, globalists, and the misinformed masses. Despite the smears and attacks, they continue to push forward for the benefit of those willing to see and understand the truth. Kudos to both these companies and their discerning customers!

So, next time you're selecting a finish for your project—whether it's your floor, deck, fence, home, cabin, metalwork, or sculpture—pause and ask yourself, "Am I blindly following corporate agendas?" When choosing foods and snacks, ask, "Can I make a healthier choice?" The answer is yes. Choose products like Odie’s Oil and Mr. Cornwall’s Super-Duper Oil. Also, do yourself a favor when making food choices and opt for natural, wholesome foods free from chemical additives. Support innovative companies that prioritize your health and well-being, rather than succumbing to the profit-driven motives and propaganda of corporate overlords.

References

1. American Psychological Association (APA). (2019). "The Impact of Advertising on Consumer Behavior."
2. See: www.GeoEngineeringWatch.org ; www.GeoEngineeringMonitor.org ; and simply Google - "GeoEngineering atmospheric"
3. De Stefano, V. (2016). "The Rise of the Gig Economy: A New Challenge for Labor Law." Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal.
4. https://clowardandpiven.com (A outlines their blueprint for subversion through deception)
5. McChesney, R. (2013). "Digital Disconnect: How Capitalism is Turning the Internet Against Democracy."
6. OpenSecrets. (2021). "The 2020 Lobbying Spending." Center for Responsive Politics.
7. Katherin Austin Fitts, https://home.solari.com
8. Sullivan, M. (2019). "Pharmaceutical Lobbying: The Politics of Prescription Drugs." Health Affairs.
9. Tooze, A. (2018). "Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World."
10. Galbraith, J.K. (1967) "The New Industrial State", Princeton University Press , you can see an overview here: https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691131412/the-new-industrial-state

Odie's Oil is unique among finishes because it penetrates the surface layer of the wood, filling the invisible spaces between them while cross-linking molecularly to the wood fibers beneath the outer surface. When Odie's Oil cures it creates a very-strong natural rubber-like substance that plays a significant role in stabilizing wood planks and making them impervious to water and other liquids. The only way to wear an Odie's finish away is to wear away the wood itself. Odie's Oil is a permanent seal inside the wood, melding with it and creating a new and more resilient structure, serving to reduce movement such as cupping, curling, and checking or cracking and hence virtually eliminating callbacks.

In contrast, film forming finishes (and that includes polyurethanes and the many popular catalyst-dependent "hard-wax oil" finishes) serve only as a temporary protective layer atop of the surface. They are not structural enhancements, nor do they provide any significant stabilization or reduction in movement. Since they rely solely on a mechanical bond to the wood surface and if they cross link it is only to its own chemical catalyst, they can eventually break down and/or separate from the wood floor. This can't happen with Odie's Oil as it resides inside the wood instead of as a layer on-top.

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No Noxious Odors, Just A Healthful Pleasant Essential Oil Scent

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ATTENTION FLOORING CONTRACTORS: We invite you to try Odie's Oil for yourself. We will send an internationally recognized flooring expert to work with you on your very first Odie's Oil job at no cost to you-so that you too can learn the ins and outs of successful Odie's Oil application. No noxious odors, just a healthful pleasant essential oil scent.

Preface

This handbook was created with the help of research into the SDS sheets of the finishing products being offered to the public and professionals. The handbook includes an introduction, a brief general discussion of the coatings industry product profiles, a list of dangerous ingredients in finish coatings, and ChatGPT AI’s overview of their health and environmental risk factors.

This book is meant to inform consumers, specifiers, and tradesmen and increase their awareness of the hazards of the many finish products offered in the marketplace and ultimately enable them to make better choices in finishing products.

Introduction

The coatings industry has been notoriously complicit in damaging human and environmental health. From polyurethane coatings on exterior log cabins that are typically built in environmentally sensitive locations to the poisoning of tradesmen and consumers applying these and similar finishes on everything from furniture, posts, and beams to cabinets, countertops, and wood floors to the spontaneous fires that sometimes occur when such materials are being applied. The biggest factor in the health impacts and damages to consumers, tradesmen, women, and the environment can be largely attributed to a lack of awareness of the dangers of the ingredients that make up these very coating products. “Choose wisely” should be the motto for anyone considering using any coatings product.

Conventional floor finishes in residential and commercial settings pose several specific health hazards due to the combination of toxic chemicals and environmental factors involved. Additionally, the presence of various toxic chemicals in floor finishes can lead to respiratory illnesses and sick building syndrome, exacerbated by decreased ventilation and the increasing variety of indoor materials. These finishes often contain compounds that can cause skin and eye irritation, breathing difficulties, and headaches, with long-term exposure potentially leading to chronic illnesses ^[1&91;.

While cans and containers can carry badges and declarations of “low-VOC,” “no-VOC,” or Green Certified and similar marketing ploys, the truth of safety lies in the chemical components listed in the Safety Data Sheets (SDS or MSDS sheets). VOCs are a pretty good indicator because if you can smell something noxious, it's a tip-off that it is noxious. However, not all VOCs are toxic; flowers and essential oils, for example, can have health-promoting VOCs. The removal or reduction of VOCs from noxious chemicals does not completely eliminate their toxicity. Hence, de-aromatized ingredients do not directly address their overall toxicity, which may include genetic and chromosomal damage. Unfortunately, lobbies have convinced regulators to focus mostly on VOC’s when reviewing the safety and suitability of wood finishes while manufacturers are compelled to consider the individual components of their formulations when preparing SDS sheets.

SDS sheets are usually available on the manufacturer’s website. Still, sometimes the ingredients are hidden from the public or obfuscated by exemption codes, often resulting from the chemical industry lobbying regulators for maximum/minimum thresholds and declaration requirements. SDS sheets require only acute toxicity (read immediate toxicity) to be declared, while delayed reactions and their resultant causality in future diseases need not be mentioned. Hence, reading a Safety Data Sheet requires not only some patience but also, often, some level of technical prowess, as code numbers, EPA-acceptable thresholds, and other technicalities can mask ingredient safety issues.

Specifiers, tradesmen, and consumers should be aware that there are better and far safer alternatives to the product options and coating paradigms presented by the chemical industry, which has repeatedly demonstrated that profiteering is valued over the health and well-being of users and the environment. Unfortunately, since our world is largely driven by money and profits, there are far fewer viable alternatives offered in the market than ideally should be. In addition, the film-forming finish modality is designed for planned obsolescence, releasing their often toxin-laden material into the environment while requiring sanding and/or stripping and reapplying.

There are a few clean ingredient products on the market, nearly all of them natural oils. Still, most oil natural finishes lack some higher levels of technical development, making them significantly less durable than Odie’s Oil which stands out among the crowd as the best alternative finishing product line, representing an entirely new and natural paradigm of Structural Oil Finish™ that is truly durable, protective, beautifying, safe, 100% toxin-free, and can be reapplied without any preparation other than simple cleaning of the surface if very dirty.

General Discussion

It seems that many finishes are deficient and wanting in virtues, durability, and protection, and hence, the notion has arisen that there is perhaps a need for an additional top coat of an entirely different product, suggesting a protective shell in addition to the finish layers underneath. While the logic is frankly laughable, the SDS sheets reveal the dark facts about these top-coat products. Shockingly, but not surprisingly, they are persistent environmental toxins, and are directly toxic to humans, terrestrial animals, fish, and even trees. If you feel your finish needs to have another coating on top, like a “nano-coat,” then you are using the wrong finish in the first place. The very fact that anyone believes that there is an opportunity in the market for a finish topper is a testament to the fact that the finishes being used to treat wood or other surfaces in the first place are significantly deficient. 

Furthermore, if the nano-top coat or protective finish itself needs to be reapplied annually or at some similar interval, that is proof of the ridiculousness and weakness of the topper coat. If it wears off in a year, you have to wonder, where does it go? Considering the toxicity of the chemicals and compounds that these finishes contain, it then becomes obvious that those toxic ingredients are transferring from the surface to you, your family, colleagues, patrons, and pets, i.e. to your skin, your food, your home or office - it has to go somewhere if it wears off.

Polyurethanes are, by definition, plastic-like coatings, materials, and foams that contain isocyanates. Without them, they would not be able to make a plastic-like product. Varnishes also require certain chemistry, including chemical solvents to perform as intended. The go-to solvents that the coating industry most often chooses as essential finish ingredients are usually derived from petroleum processing products.

The classes of various finish coatings, from the new nano-materials to the old standard varnishes and polyurethanes, whether waterborne or oil-based, are riddled with a long and growing list of toxic, hazardous, and otherwise unsustainable ingredients. These finish form a separate layer atop the surfaces that they are applied to, this implies a separation between the two materials (the substrate and the finish) which is a weak link that will eventually fail, releasing the finish material and its toxic payload into the immediate environment. In outdoor applications that includes release into the soil and groundwater or potentially (as in the case of forever chemicals such as have been found in Teflon® coatings) the aquifer beneath.This enhances the likelihood that finish product toxins will enter the food chain and further contaminate the planet and all living things as in the case of PFOAs.

We asked ChatGPT to “List all of the toxic chemical ingredients found in chemical finish coating products,” and they provided this. Afterward, we prepared our own list by reviewing a selection of SDS sheets of finishing products on the market. Then, we asked the AI to provide a brief synopsis of each. What follows the list below, are the words of ChatCPT.

Beware of finishes containing any of the following ingredients:

Acrylates

Acrylamide

Acetone

Benzene

Ethylbenzene

Benzene Derivatives

Crystalline silica

Formaldehyde

Methanol

Phenol

Isocyanate

d-Isocyanate

Methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI)

Toluene diisocyanate (TDI)

Toluene

Xylene

Chlorinated Solvents

Glycol ethers

Ethylene glycol monomethyl ether (EGME)

Ethylene glycol monoethyl ether (EGEE)

Polysiloxane resin

Hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI) oligomers

1,6-diisocyanatohexane

Mineral Spirits aka Stoddard Solvent

Hydro-treated light petroleum distillates (HLPDs)

Methylene chloride

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs)

Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)

Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA)

Naphtha

Octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane (D4)

Phthalates

Diethyl phthalate (DEP)

Dibutyl phthalate

Aminofunctional silicone fluids, also known as amino silicones or aminoalkyl silicones

Styrene

Trichloroethylene (TCE)

Nano-graphene

2-Butanone oxime, also known as methyl ethyl ketoxime (MEKO)

Solvent naphtha (petroleum), medium aliphatic, or medium aliphatic solvent naphtha

2-Ethylhexanoic acid, manganese salt

Dipropylene glycol monomethyl ether (DPM)

Hexanedioic acid, dihydrazide (HDDA)

Trichloroethylene (TCE)

Chemical finish coating products often contain a variety of toxic ingredients, each with its own potential health and environmental risks. Click the link below to read the Handbook in its entirety:

The Finishers & Specifiers Handbook page link

Conclusion

It is quite clear that the situation in the finish coating industry (and finish coating is on almost everything) is dire and scandalous. So what can you do about it? Don’t support those who consider you disposable; buy from companies that genuinely care about your health and safety. Odie’s Oil delivers maximum performance while elevating safety, health, and well-being to the top of the value chart.