Dr, Watson, Sherlock Holmes is calling!
Joseph Raglione
April 02, 2009
Gentle readers of the American Chronicle, I do not like Bio-Fuels. Why? Because Bio-Fuels will perpetuate the creation of internal combustion engines.
Bio-Fuels, like "Clean Coal" and "Bitumen Oil" create CO2 emissions and like Oil and Coal, will cause the destruction of Rain and Arboreal Forests. Bio-Fuels utilize land space better served creating food crops. With the advent of Electric Cars, Bio-Fueled vehicles are not needed and so why is President Obama perpetuating the concept of Bio-Fuels? Why is your new President adamantly trying to push Bio-Fuels upon us? This is definitely a mysterious question, Dr. Watson, and to find the answer I will need your help. If we do a little research it might lead us back to a Chicken Farm somewhere and a promise made in the heat of an election campaign. Let us discover why Barack Obama wants Bio-Fuels. Meanwhile, the following is how your Boss or Government agent is trained to motivate you into working for minimum wage....>
Coercion With a Smile
Within corporate culture and government agency PR, Orwellian "doublespeak" has become a common way of disguising coercion. Can a "benefit" be beneficial if it´s compulsory? Does an "incentive" do any good if it´s actually a threat?
Employees may not be able to refuse the "offer" of overtime or the "aid" of close monitoring of every small action. The unemployed have mandatory "assistance" and "incentives", including termination of their payments if they don´t conduct their "jobseeking" in exactly the prescribed way.
Many long-standing compulsory benefits (eg free compulsory education and the TV licence) have a benign appearance, and are largely accepted and unquestioned. This must indicate, to those who use doublespeak, that it´s a highly effective public relations strategy.
Marketing and PR people are aware of the western cultural bias towards "self-determination" (ie individualist self-control). They know we´re more likely to yield to their persuasions if we believe we´re personally in control and not being coerced – when we sense coercion we respond with resentment and resistance. Corporations and government thus make frequent use of self-determining words (eg "opportunity", "incentive" and "challenge") as tools of resentment management.
The technique is to let you believe you have a free choice – when, in fact, all you have is a dilemma (a "free choice" implies at least one favourable option; a dilemma means each option is unfavourable). The language of the typical workplace is saturated with self-determining words, which hide coercion by disguising dilemmas as choices. In such environments, employees may actually come to believe they are performing repetitive, mindless tasks eight hours a day, out of personal choice, rather than economic dilemma.
Resentment management is a subset of "damage limitation". Damage limitation plays a massive role in advertising – many large organisations use commercials, not for selling products, but for deflecting some of the hostility, suspicion and anxiety the public feels towards them. For example, surveys continually show that people are hostile towards banks and other financial institutions. Nice, friendly "family" adverts are used to counteract this tendency, often with no attempt to sell any specific services or products
Bio-Fuels, like "Clean Coal" and "Bitumen Oil" create CO2 emissions and like Oil and Coal, will cause the destruction of Rain and Arboreal Forests. Bio-Fuels utilize land space better served creating food crops. With the advent of Electric Cars, Bio-Fueled vehicles are not needed and so why is President Obama perpetuating the concept of Bio-Fuels? Why is your new President adamantly trying to push Bio-Fuels upon us? This is definitely a mysterious question, Dr. Watson, and to find the answer I will need your help. If we do a little research it might lead us back to a Chicken Farm somewhere and a promise made in the heat of an election campaign. Let us discover why Barack Obama wants Bio-Fuels. Meanwhile, the following is how your Boss or Government agent is trained to motivate you into working for minimum wage....>
Coercion With a Smile
Within corporate culture and government agency PR, Orwellian "doublespeak" has become a common way of disguising coercion. Can a "benefit" be beneficial if it´s compulsory? Does an "incentive" do any good if it´s actually a threat?
Employees may not be able to refuse the "offer" of overtime or the "aid" of close monitoring of every small action. The unemployed have mandatory "assistance" and "incentives", including termination of their payments if they don´t conduct their "jobseeking" in exactly the prescribed way.
Many long-standing compulsory benefits (eg free compulsory education and the TV licence) have a benign appearance, and are largely accepted and unquestioned. This must indicate, to those who use doublespeak, that it´s a highly effective public relations strategy.
Marketing and PR people are aware of the western cultural bias towards "self-determination" (ie individualist self-control). They know we´re more likely to yield to their persuasions if we believe we´re personally in control and not being coerced – when we sense coercion we respond with resentment and resistance. Corporations and government thus make frequent use of self-determining words (eg "opportunity", "incentive" and "challenge") as tools of resentment management.
The technique is to let you believe you have a free choice – when, in fact, all you have is a dilemma (a "free choice" implies at least one favourable option; a dilemma means each option is unfavourable). The language of the typical workplace is saturated with self-determining words, which hide coercion by disguising dilemmas as choices. In such environments, employees may actually come to believe they are performing repetitive, mindless tasks eight hours a day, out of personal choice, rather than economic dilemma.
Resentment management is a subset of "damage limitation". Damage limitation plays a massive role in advertising – many large organisations use commercials, not for selling products, but for deflecting some of the hostility, suspicion and anxiety the public feels towards them. For example, surveys continually show that people are hostile towards banks and other financial institutions. Nice, friendly "family" adverts are used to counteract this tendency, often with no attempt to sell any specific services or products
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