Three Word Messages

It is fortunate that the American public has a short attention span. If you want an idea to persist it must be reiterated over and over lest a thousand competing messages displaces it. Propagandists know this nature very well. Message mavens know to that three magic words are all that can be successfully conveyed at any one time. “Where’ the beef?” became a viral catch phrase long before things going viral was even a thing. Millions of people still recall Carl Sagen saying “billions and billions” even if they don’t remember or ever knew who Sagen was. Google capitalized on “Don’t be Evil” in their earliest days of existence. “Just do it.”

The problem is… actually the saving grace as I am going to explore… is multiple messages cannot exist in the same time and space. This is why “lock her up” was displaced by “send her back.” The message of Make America Great is alternated with Make America Safe by the orator at his bi-weekly rallies. He cannot afford to pause or stop his rhetoric lest the heat dies down and the momentum be lost.

Social media has become a boon to such propaganda first because it is free. Second, eager listeners can parrot the message to an even wider audience. And Third you can pay someone to create auto response bots to make the message look more widely spread than it really is. The repetition of the simple message echoes for days or even weeks as the bot and the faithful followers retweet the messages. At some point the radius of that social media network reaches its limit and the message is only bounced back and forth within that radius. The impact of this phenomenon is not to be dismissed, but echoes do die out. In Pentecostal services, the minister makes The Call and the congregation makes the Response in what is referred to as Call and Response. Imagine that. The minister quotes a Scripture and asks “can I get a witness?” a half dozen or so eager parishioners stands up with arm up stretched and shouts Hallelujah and/or Amen. And the cycle repeats like the instruction on a bottle of shampoo: Wash Rinse Repeat. Again, the three words. However enthused is the congregation, as soon as the minister stops the calls, the responses cease too. Until the next service.

Donald Trump employs such a protocol in his regular rally gatherings. He doesn’t need to initiate the first “Send her back” chant. He has already primed that pump with tweet for the few days leading up to the rally. There is always a few zealous people in the audience who are more than willing to show their leader that he has a loyal following. The whole process is an exercise in Stochastic manipulation. He never has to start the chant, thereby being able to show it was spontaneous. His reactions are certain proof that he approves and is pleased with the behavior.

He has the ability to schedule as many rallies as he wants to further his agenda and attempt to be reelected for a second 4 years. Even though no other President in US history has ever used his office in this manner, he is not above doing anything he wants to without regard to the consequences. It is as I often write, a Tuna! Scheme, one where the buying and selling of everything in paramount and without concern for the consequences.

Donald Trump acts like the CEO of a large corporation (actually he is one) where everything outside the core enterprise is an “externality” to be ignored. Mining corporations consider injured miners and retired miners as external to their purpose of mining. They are to be discarded when their usefulness is depleted. Trump’s political base will be likewise jettisoned at the moment they do not serve his goal of attention seeking and aggrandizement. He loves himself more than any other thing. This probably stems from not being loved by anyone before.

His adoring base are the useful idiots referred to by economist Ludwig von Mises and put to practical purpose by Vladimir Lenin. The Useful Idiots have their place but are completely expendable in the end.

At some point, either on January 21, 2021 or 2025 the natural processes of the succession of power will wipe Donald Trump from the Oval Office, if not before due to infirmity or impeachment. Very quickly his base will return to football and beer. Many of them will have died of their own decay. The short attention spans will be following other irresistible mantras. They will hold no sway in America much longer.

What will persist is the Federal Court appointments. They will have the longest lasting influence on American society. Even all Wrecking Crew appointment to cabinet positions and to heads of Federal agencies will soon be turned over to people who will act consistent with the purposes of their agencies and that of the President.

While the political landscape appears to be quite bleak right now, the human behaviors which have allowed this perversion the great ideals of America will also be the ones that swing the pendulum back the other way.