Flame — HabitableZone

Flame » in reply to The Entrepreneurial Mystique

Double plus ungood
ER — (archived)

I owe the group an explanation for this piece, it represents a lot of effort in order to make a point: that it is possible to craft an exquisitely detailed lie whose purpose is not to instruct, or even persuade, but to mislead. You study your opponent and his program, analyze his psychology and motivations, and adopt his methods and rhetoric in order to discredit and embarass him. As I mentioned, I wrote this piece several years ago and circulated it amongst my friends, the conservatives among them welcomed my conversion (although, to be fair, most had some reservations about it, as did Tom). My liberal friends were aghast, including my dear wife, who was suddenly wondering how she could have lived with this man for decades and not known this terrible secret about him.

But we should not be surprised, this is propaganda, this is marketing, this is public relations, this is the literary form of the twentieth century, and it is evil whether used in politics, the law, the arts, journalism or commerce. We recognize the evil in politics but tend to accept it uncritically in other fields. (Marketing is defined as the art of convincing people to buy things they don't need and can't afford with money they haven't got.)

The twenty-first century will see further improvements in this black art, particularly in the technology of its delivery saystems. For those of you who have been reading between the lines of my posts, you will know that I am very concerned about this and that it plays a big role in my thought and my writing.

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