Spinfluence

 

Guzzling an outrageously expensive bottled water – purchased at the San Francisco airport while Renée, my helpmate in life, and awaited our scheduled flight home at the conclusion of a May 2014 County Leader Forum–we wandered into one those “gotcha shops” tucked conveniently along the extensive airport corridor. While looked for a healthy snack–like

Snickers bar–she approached me with book she noticed one of the congested display shelves. “You might want to purchase this,” she encouraged, knowing it was as good as done.

Commanding a price about as much as the bottled water, the small book–the dimensions of a greeting card and about as thick as a piece of birthday cake–is titled, Spinfluence – The Hardcore Propaganda Manual For Controlling the Masses. Written by British author Nicholas McFarlane, who originally hailed from the capital city of New Zealand (Wellington), the manual was published in 2013 by Carpet Bombing Culture (evokes quite the visual, doesn’t it?).

McFarlane, who specializes in “distort-optics,” defines spinfluence as the “power and influence which spin–the technique in which language is used to propagate a biased idea or interpretation of events– exerts over a person’s thoughts, feelings and behavior.”

Emblazoned on the back of the garnet-red book you will read these words, “This hardcore propaganda manual contains everything you’ll need to know about the art of spinning the truth and manipulating the masses. A glorious and insightful read for anyone interested in how to exploit people for profit or power.”

I devoured the book during our 10-hour flight back to Thunder Bay while munching stale pretzels, compliments of the airline (never did purchase the Snickers bar, as I was distracted).

Independent thinking?

McFarlane maintains spinfluence is most successful when the audience remains oblivious to its use, believing instead that their behavior is the result of their own independent thinking.

Controversial American author, Robert Greene, whose books are sometimes described as manipulative and amoral–his, The 48 Laws of Power, having earned the distinction as the “Hollywood back-stabber’s bible” and curiously, is also one of the most requested books in American prison libraries … it has also been reported that former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro read the book–I assume while smoking one of his better cigars.

So, what does Greene have to say about the present-day existence of independent thinking?

From his book, The 33 Strategies of War, “People’s perceptions are filtered through their emotions; they tend to interpret the world according to what they want to see. Feed their expectations, manufacture a reality to match their desires, and they will fool themselves. The best deceptions are based on ambiguity, mixing facts and fiction so that the one cannot be disentangled from the other. Control people’s perceptions and you control them.”

That’s exactly the strategy employed when spinfluence surfaces. The objective is to manage public opinion and manufacture the consent of the masses; or at least enough people to steamroll the rest. Do this and you will “manufacture” consent.

The former New Zealander lays out the following tactical objectives:

. Control the narrative.

. Arouse the interest of a specific group.

. Nullify unhelpful ideas.

. Agitate or desensitize the emotional state of the target audience.

In June of 2010, I was challenged by the then-local school superintendent to read a book, which she claimed would completely transform my way of thinking and recast my brain into “seeing things her way” (synonym for “distort-optics”).

The book was–and still is–Our Iceberg Is Melting (can’t seem to get away from the iceberg thing) by authors John Kotter and Holger Rathgeber, first published by St. Martin’s Press in 2005.

Well, I purchased the book, wrapped my head in tinfoil–merely as a precaution–and read it cover to cover.

The authors use a fable about a penguin colony in Antarctica that has lived on the same iceberg for many years. When one curious bird discovers problem signs in the iceberg, few penguins want to listen to him. They are fine the way things are and don’t want to change.

Fred, the visionary penguin in the group, expends considerable energy in efforts to manufacture the consent of the masses and ensure that changes would not be overcome by stubborn, loud detractors.

My advice . . . get ready!

From the June 20, 2017 Committee of the Whole budget discussion:

“So, I kinda want to run through this because then I want to test your thinking about these words and these messages, ’cause this is going to turn into our messaging that goes out to the public and it’s gonna run alongside with our budgeting process with our department heads, with the budget committee and then the media messages that we get out there.

“Our target audience is not the people who don’t want to pay taxes or are loud detractors. Our target audience [is] the 80 percent of the people who are paying their taxes, going to work, raising their families, and they just don’t have enough information about what we do. This is why we have a communications team and we’re managing our messages.

“We’re talking about strategies. We’re talking about messaging. Anything that happens can’t be a result of outside pressure.”

~Cook County Administrator
Jeff Cadwell

Former Cook County Commissioner Garry Gamble is writing this ongoing column about the various ways government works.