The delusion of efficacy.
19/5/12 17:32![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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talkpoliticsThere is an old saying a wise man (who looked similar to a bear) once said: "The most dangerous man is not the evil one, the smart one or the dumb one. The most dangerous man is the one who thinks he can accomplish something."
Bipartisan amendment to defense bill seeks to lift prohibition on domestic propaganda.
What happens in the halls of government? Well, I believe one of the most dangerous things that happen within government is the slow-crawling delusion of efficacy. Perhaps the greatest example of this delusion was Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. Two men, who having spent a lifetime in the insulated walls of bureaucratic power, actually came to believe that they could mold the world with their words. And this is essentially what this issue is about: the crazy belief that ardent insistence creates reality.
It happens not just in government, but in the private sector as well. Enron executives, having ridden a wave of prosperity not of their own making, came to believe in their own efficacy, and when the wave was about to disappear, they stubbornly insisted that they could make it better, simply by insisting that it was better. It is a strange sort of bullheaded desperation masquerading as confidence and competence. It is the classic Titanic debacle, played out in every organization that ever existed.
On it's face, the idea that someone actually believes in the power of their insistence is quite silly. We know that people don't explicitly believe this. What happens though, is that power creates the illusion of magic. The reason that Rumsfeld could insist that the world was this way, was because he also believed he had the power to make it this way. So when people disagree with you, and move to block you, you become irate, because your words are true, if only they would let you make it true! But of course, the point is that they fail anyways. Even when they do get their way, and their words and their power are given freedom to act, they end up being shuffled out the backdoor with a Freedom Medal and solemn words about "public service" and "Oh this isn't because we royally fucked up or anything. We're just tired."
I apologize for what seems like a terribly long digression from the issue of propaganda. I wanted to explore the dynamics of power and institutions more than the propaganda part. What we have here is a recent example of this delusion: people in the Public Affairs of DoD have this idea that if someone just let them do what they wanted, they would bring to effect their designs. We all know the old cliche: What could possibly go wrong?
Does anyone here seriously think some ham-fisted hackjob of a DoD propaganda campaign would actually accomplish anything? I mean seriously. Evidently these people have spent so much time in the suffocating bureaucracy of the Pentagon that they actually think the American people are clueless, doe-eyed idiots ready to be molded by their ingenious campaigns of (mis)information. Of course, this isn't 1941 anymore. Official Propaganda became obsolete in Vietnam, not to mention the highly jaded and cynical Internet Age.
Sure, some might say that people are dumb and easily manipulated. I would agree, inasmuch as they are easily manipulated into buying things that give them pleasure. Or manipulated by circumstance and necessity into doing dumb things for someone else's gain. But this isn't a Real War, and we're not fully mobilizied, and the DoD does not have to worry about keeping hordes of draftees "in the fight". The small sliver of voluntary service-members who join for any number of reasons, of their own will and freedom, don't need it. The American people don't need it... after all we aren't really "at war" anymore than we are "at war" when a cop down the street pulls someone else over: he's doing his job and we go about our own lives regardless.
So what would be accomplished by this, other than simply draining the government of even more faith or respect? What do they expect other than mockery and ridicule?
Bipartisan amendment to defense bill seeks to lift prohibition on domestic propaganda.
What happens in the halls of government? Well, I believe one of the most dangerous things that happen within government is the slow-crawling delusion of efficacy. Perhaps the greatest example of this delusion was Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. Two men, who having spent a lifetime in the insulated walls of bureaucratic power, actually came to believe that they could mold the world with their words. And this is essentially what this issue is about: the crazy belief that ardent insistence creates reality.
It happens not just in government, but in the private sector as well. Enron executives, having ridden a wave of prosperity not of their own making, came to believe in their own efficacy, and when the wave was about to disappear, they stubbornly insisted that they could make it better, simply by insisting that it was better. It is a strange sort of bullheaded desperation masquerading as confidence and competence. It is the classic Titanic debacle, played out in every organization that ever existed.
On it's face, the idea that someone actually believes in the power of their insistence is quite silly. We know that people don't explicitly believe this. What happens though, is that power creates the illusion of magic. The reason that Rumsfeld could insist that the world was this way, was because he also believed he had the power to make it this way. So when people disagree with you, and move to block you, you become irate, because your words are true, if only they would let you make it true! But of course, the point is that they fail anyways. Even when they do get their way, and their words and their power are given freedom to act, they end up being shuffled out the backdoor with a Freedom Medal and solemn words about "public service" and "Oh this isn't because we royally fucked up or anything. We're just tired."
I apologize for what seems like a terribly long digression from the issue of propaganda. I wanted to explore the dynamics of power and institutions more than the propaganda part. What we have here is a recent example of this delusion: people in the Public Affairs of DoD have this idea that if someone just let them do what they wanted, they would bring to effect their designs. We all know the old cliche: What could possibly go wrong?
Does anyone here seriously think some ham-fisted hackjob of a DoD propaganda campaign would actually accomplish anything? I mean seriously. Evidently these people have spent so much time in the suffocating bureaucracy of the Pentagon that they actually think the American people are clueless, doe-eyed idiots ready to be molded by their ingenious campaigns of (mis)information. Of course, this isn't 1941 anymore. Official Propaganda became obsolete in Vietnam, not to mention the highly jaded and cynical Internet Age.
Sure, some might say that people are dumb and easily manipulated. I would agree, inasmuch as they are easily manipulated into buying things that give them pleasure. Or manipulated by circumstance and necessity into doing dumb things for someone else's gain. But this isn't a Real War, and we're not fully mobilizied, and the DoD does not have to worry about keeping hordes of draftees "in the fight". The small sliver of voluntary service-members who join for any number of reasons, of their own will and freedom, don't need it. The American people don't need it... after all we aren't really "at war" anymore than we are "at war" when a cop down the street pulls someone else over: he's doing his job and we go about our own lives regardless.
So what would be accomplished by this, other than simply draining the government of even more faith or respect? What do they expect other than mockery and ridicule?
(no subject)
Date: 19/5/12 23:04 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 19/5/12 23:19 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 19/5/12 23:17 (UTC)Thornberry warned that in the Internet age, the current law “ties the hands of America’s diplomatic officials, military, and others by inhibiting our ability to effectively communicate in a credible way.”
Put this together with SOPA, PIPA, CISPA, ACTA...
The government is becoming increasingly worried about the internet, and where Americans are now getting their news and information (as alternatives to the big 6 which own most traditional American media). Mainstream news ratings are down, and keep going down.
(no subject)
Date: 20/5/12 19:00 (UTC)being developed by the Pentagonwoulddoesdesign software tocreate “sock puppets” on social media outlets."This came out after Anonymous hacked HB Gary (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/02/16/945768/-UPDATED:-The-HB-Gary-Email-That-Should-Concern-Us-All) some time ago. I don't know who developed the system. It could have been the Pentagon, it could have been a private contractor. Doesn't matter. It's here.
(I often suspect several on this forum, in fact, are such sock puppets.)
The fact that it is being codified into law really, really disturbs me.
(no subject)
Date: 20/5/12 20:41 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 21/5/12 08:58 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 21/5/12 18:55 (UTC)