I once successfully seduced a woman by comparing her to a buffalo.

A)  It’s a long story

B)   Don’t try this at home.  Injury, death or worse may occur.

C)   Yes, this is directly related to Politics and Self-Deception.

 

In my last post, I covered three of the four main elements in the speech writer’s/campaign manager’s toolbox.

1) Truth

2) Lies

3) Truthiness

4) Self-deception

Self-Deception deserves its own post.  Self-deception is to a speech writer what flour is to a baker or iron is to a blacksmith.  Essential

All seduction including political writing, requires an understanding of what other people think of themselves.  Generally, people think well of themselves, in fact, a little too well.    In one study 80% of the participants said that they were of above-average intelligence. Dumber people overestimate their intelligence, while smarter people tend to overestimate the intelligence of others.  Go here to see the financial consequences.

Each of us has an infinite capacity for self-deception.

Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz – The Power of Full-Engagement

This is what politiking and seduction have in common.  Just as saying, “On a scale of 1 to 10 you’re a five who could stand to lose some weight” won’t get a woman out of her clothes (Men, as a rule, will not be so easily deterred), “You’re an average person, with average intelligence, so don’t expect too much” won’t increase anyone’s chance of being elected.

To summarize, “The truth” doesn’t cut it.

“You’re smart. You’re beautiful.  You deserve the best”,  are a million times more seductive. “You remind me of a buffalo” also works but you’ve got to tell one hell of a story.

In politics, “You’re moral, You’re exceptional. You deserve the best.” is much more likely to gain votes.

Focus groups, surveys, polls are used to help us find out just how delusional you really are.

“I’m not delusional!” sure you’re not.  Let’s look at some hot button issues and see where you stand.

Immigration

Serious talk, I know Bahamians who have American or Canadian bosses, Cuban girlfriends, Jamaican maids, and Haitian gardeners, but, without any hint of irony, ask, “Why don’t these foreigners  go home?”  Some of these people have no problem with the idea of MASS DEPORTATION, but just not of ‘their’ bosses, girlfriends, maids or gardeners.

The Immigration Debate in any country always seems to have the following:

• Xenophobes.  They don’t like anybody, and are always looking to make some group their society’s pariahs.
• People who want the cheap labour of immigrants but publicly state  that they don’t like  immigrants
• People who are surprised by a basic biological fact, men want women, women want children (generally), hence the number of people regarded as immigrants continues to grow.
• Hypocrites of other sorts.

There are those who tend to be more rational on this subject but this topic is usually driven by emotions. So it’s easy to find a theme a write the requisite speech.

The U.S Economy (You deserve the best)

Wealth Re-distribution. Class Warfare. Entitlements. 47%. Deficits.   An entire book can or should be written on the jargon and code of Macro-economic discussion.  Say the wrong thing in the wrong crowd and you could get horse-whipped and run out of town.

The whole “The economy” talk drives this guy nuts and with good reason since he focuses on personal finance.  If you want to drop a bomb during “The economy” discussion with friends, ask how many maxed out their  401K contributions even prior to 2007.  For an added bonus ask them about budgeting.

Less than 20% max out their 401(k) contributions.  More than 60% fail to create or stick to a budget.  What difference does “the economy” make to people who have poor financial habits?   We all want it to be better but only a few will actually capitalize on its improvement. Yet, “the economy” can be sound bited(?)  (sound-bitten?) to death.

Abortion (You are moral)

In 2012 Gallup Polls found that 50 percent of Americans identify with the term pro-life and only 41 percent with pro-choice.  Pro-lifers are gaining ground right? Well don’t break out the champagne for the end of Roe v Wade just yet.  The U.S is still a pro-choice country.  In the same poll, 25% said that they supported abortion rights in all cases, with some 52%  saying they would only impose some restrictions.

So, 51% say they are pro-life but 77% seem to be pro-choice.  Huh?

The truth is simple. Morality does not poll well.

It doesn’t poll well because what we say believe and what we actually believe are two different things even when speaking anonymously to a pollster.

This is what makes this political game so very dangerous.

There is a gap between how smart people actually are and how smart they think they are and an even bigger gap between what they say they believe and what they actually believe.  Imagine trying to design a campaign or create a speech knowing that the voters are just as dishonest as the politicians.

To summarize: People are a  freaking problem!

Cutting through the smoke.

What if anything can be done, to cut through the smoke of my profession?  Is there anyway that the “TRUTH” can be known?  I doubt it.  What can be learnt is from which direction the greatest number of lies will come from in any election.  The idea is not new but it is simple.

Follow the money

 

The people behind the curtain are far more frightening than politicians on stage.  The more money  that any particular group spends the greater the influence they expect to have on government after the election is over.

Hence, 20 million people contributing one dollar cannot have as great an influence on a candidate as one person donating twenty million dollars.

More dishonesty comes with more money.  Figure out where the most money is coming from and you’ll find the source of many lies.

Accept the pain

Any great thing requires sacrifice to accomplish.  Any politician who tells you that you won’t experience the pain of sacrifice is pandering to your self-delusions.  Balancing a budget, improving health and/or education all require some pain at the personal level so why are people so ready to believe it will be painless at a national level.

There it is dear reader.  I hope you’ve enjoyed this quick trip into my world as convoluted and smoky as it is.  I hope you’ve learnt something about yourself and your politician.  I also hope that you’ll be harder on yourself and easier on politicians.  It’s no that they are more dishonest than you are, it’s just that their job causes them to be dishonest in public more often.

I’d like to hear your comments.

 

Once upon a time a young, handsome and somewhat naive speechwriter asked a superior what information needed to be put in an upcoming speech.  ”I dunno.  Just blow some smoke up their ass.” was the response.   Considering that the person delivering the speech didn’t like the group he would be addressing and that the feeling was mutual,  since smoke was requested,  smoke was delivered.

The response to said smoke was amazing.  The event made the evening news and the speaker later told me that members of the group had been impressed enough to request copies of the speech for inclusion in their newsletter.

If you’ve ever felt completely captivated by a political speech but then felt deceived or better yet remained impressed by the politician for a very long time, that was the smoke.  Will you get by tricked again? Definitely.

Avoid the smoke and get a real grasp of the issues.  First, what’s in the smoke.

 

Here are the elements

A good political speech or campaign will have the following:

1. Truth

2. Lies

3. Truthiness

4. Self-deception

(I know there are more but let’s stick with the basics for now.)

If you live anywhere in the world that has elections,  you’ll recognize these elements in your own country  but for illustrative purposes  I’ll use an example that everyone from Australia to Norway will be tired of familiar with, the U.S Presidential elections.

Truth

What is truth? A question debated by both philosophers and fools throughout

the ages.  Here is an analogy that I like to use; the truth is what you look like first thing in the morning, just after you get out of bed.  You then try to spend the next two hours trying to avoid looking like that.

Is it still you that that walks out of your house to go to work? Sure, but an enhanced and better version than what crawled out of bed.

Are President Obama, VP Biden, Candidates Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan telling the truth?  Yes, sometimes the pure and unadulterated truth.

Unfortunately, Jack Nicholson in “A Few Good Men’ was right, “You can’t handle the truth!”  So, sometimes the pure and unadulterated truth gets a makeover and becomes an enhanced version of the truth.

If the truth gets too ‘enhanced’ too much it becomes

 

Lies

Obfuscation, Deviation, Disambiguation, no problem, but a lie should be a tool of last resort.

Generally, a speech writer/campaign manager tries to avoid having his candidate say outright lies.  They are too easily uncovered by the opposition or reporters.

See: Congressman Anthony Weiner

Secondly, a pattern of inexcusable and unwarranted lies makes a politician seem disconnected from reality.

See: Michelle Bachmann

Disconnected from reality = Political doom

Notice, inexcusable and unwarranted.  There are times when a lie just has to be told.  For instance, a lie can cover a gaffe.   Mitt Romney’s comments about America’s 47%  that were secretly recorded is considered a gaffe.  The major problem is that he’d been videotaped making similar comments before.     This type of gaffe is termed a Kinsley gaffe .  Any explanation that a politician offers for these types of gaffes will tend to be lies.

President Barack Obama’s, open mike moment with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, “After my election I have more flexibility”  falls into the same cateogory.  A moment of real honesty (gaffe) explained away with a lie.

What else could fill the speechwriting/campaigning script?

Truthiness

Quick question, “More women are victims of domestic violence on Super Bowl Sunday than on any other day of the year” True or False.  Keep in mind the fact that American Football is a violent game and Super Bowl Sunday is the apex of the sport celebrated with plenty of alcohol.  Men supporting the winning team will likely be more drunk and aggressive while men who are fans of the losing team will be drunk and angry.

The answer is: False

Notice all of the elements that would make you think it was true. A sport that has physical violence at its centre (unlike chess) lots of alcohol consumption, bitter losers, etc, everything that ‘feels’ like it should be true, except it ain’t.

Have you been a victim of truthiness. Yup!  If it’s any consolation, so have I and probably more than you.

Truthiness is closer to lying but harder to avoid in speech writing.  As the domestic violence on Super Bowl Sunday meme shows, truthiness is very easy to get started and once injected into any media stream it spreads.  Truthiness, is rampant in medical studies.  Eggs are deadly in one study then another study shows they are beneficial.  Juice is the only way to get all of the nutrients needed from a fruit, then raw food is the only way to get the same nutrients, and so on and so on.

Investing, Education, Health and Energy are rife with contradictory studies all claiming to be the truth.  Many of these ‘studies’ are funded by groups that intend to benefit from the public’s reaction to the truthiness of the study.

See:  this advertisement from 1979 on Clean Coal and look at where it’s located.

Pity the poor writer who needs to include some ‘facts’ in a speech.  The question not only becomes how to keep up with all of the pertinent information but also how to verify which study has used a valid methodology.  It can’t be done without a small army of fact-checkers working at lightspeed.

Sometimes, a politician is lying to you because someone else is lying to him.

Yes, dear reader, they are victims just like you.

In the next post,  I’ll reveal how your capacity for self-deception makes my job easier/harder.  Also, if you are tired of the deceit, one simple step you can take to cut through the noise and find the truth (if you can handle it).

Subscribe so you don’t miss it.

 

 Resources:

Ghost of Lies past: http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1juBnb/www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9SOVzMV2bc

Check the facts

http://factcheck.org/2012/10/factchecking-the-hofstra-debate/

Truth and Lies along the campaign trail http://theweek.com/article/index/234948/fact-checking-the-second-obama-romney-debate-who-told-the-biggest-whoppers

I totally agree with this article:http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/how-the-hype-became-bigger-than-the-presidential-election-20121009