HOW TO CREATE USEFUL IDIOTS
(From ELEMENTS OF WISDOM AND FOLLY & AMORAL SCIENCE---BRAINLESS RELIGION)
Ernest Kinnie, PhD
Copyright © 2012 by Ernest Kinnie
Smashwords Edition
ASSOCIATION MATRICES
Suppose I follow you around one day. Every once in a while I say “Democrat“, and ask for the first word that comes to you, until I collect 100 or so word associations. I follow you around some more and this time ask for your first feeling or emotion when I say “Democrat’, until I collect 50 emotion associations. We’d then have your living, ever-changing word/emotion associations for “Democrat”.
Some of your associations will be repeated multiple times and others will be rare. The resulting probability matrices of words and emotions will show how you think and feel about Democrats at this moment in your life. The more often you gave a particular word or emotion, the more likely it will flow into your awareness when you hear “Democrat”. For instance, if mostly positive emotions were evoked, positive emotions are what you will most likely become aware of when you hear the word Democrat. Simple. Straight forward. Obvious.
Now imagine I follow you around again, but this time the target word is Republican. You are probably more inclined toward one party, so there will be sharp differences between the word/emotion association matrices for “Democrat” and “Republican“
Powerful people are doing all they can to shape your association matrices---how you think, feel and then act. Advertisers spend billions to increase the probability you will buy their product. Advocacy groups of all kinds carefully craft messages to shift your association matrices toward what they want you to think, feel and do. They are especially careful to cultivate those associations that increase the probability you will send money to further their noble cause.
You also change the association matrices of yourself and those around you all the time, mostly outside your conscious awareness.
NARRATIVES
To make the message they want to send even more powerful, organizations such as the Democratic and Republican parties group the associations together into a story or narrative. That way they get back and forth reinforcement among the associations.
Three major Democratic narratives:
1. I’m for the little guy, against the big corporations and the selfish rich who trash the planet and are indifferent to the pain and struggles of the poor and middle class.
2. The power of government is necessary to stop the rape and pollution of the planet, to level the playing field, to ensure a fair distribution of resources, and to tend to the struggles and suffering of the poor and middle class.
3. The greedy rich are not paying their fair share.
The key words are strung together to create a flow of ideas and emotions. And each key word has endless variations. A politician who finds creative ways to express the narrative will be considered a great orator by those with similar associations.
Two major Republican narratives:
1. The greater the power of government to tax and regulate the less freedom left to the individual, and democrats are always for higher taxes and bigger government.
2. The Democratic Party is in the business of taxing and regulating the successful, to continue to buy the votes of those they make dependent upon government.
Which group of narratives you think are lies and attempts to brainwash, and which are obviously true depends upon which side of your own brain has been washed.
Arguments between people with different narratives is usually a waste of time. Each firmly believes facts and logic on their side. Their narrative is The Truth, so the other side must be dumb, evil, liars, libertarian, communists, deniers, warmists, greenies, left wingers, right wingers, in the pocket of somebody, etc. etc. How else to explain their not agreeing with what is so obvious? Such a discussion frequently devolves into name calling. Well, actually, it usually starts with name calling.