[Paleopsych] cialdini

[Lynn D. Johnson, Ph.D.]

Michael,
Yes, you have hit the nail on the head here. Why are we so poor at PR 
with the Arab street? I don't think it is oil money, since you can sell 
a lot of less likely ideas with proper communication. I wish I knew, and 
it is one the the reasons I am so uneasy with Bush and his team. They 
seem to be absolutely blind. Anyone know why????
    I actually think they have also done a lousy job communicating with 
the American public. This election shouldn't have been close, if you 
look at the basic fact that we are at war and generally people will not 
change horses in the middle of the war, and Kerry really offered almost 
nothing new (in contrast with Howard Dean who was a much more 
interesting person, IMHO). Bush has done a very poor job of 
communicating about the war. In fact, he has avoided press conferences 
in his first term, although when I watch him, he really isn't too bad at 
them. It is a kind of obtuseness about persuasive communication and its 
value.  A number of people on the right are very disturbed by Bush's 
failure to effectively communicate his message.
    Bush isn't new with that obtuseness. Lyndon Johnson used to say, "If 
you've got 'em by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow" and 
look where that got him.

Lynn

Michael Christopher wrote:

>>>Look to social psychologist Robert Cialdini for some
>>>      
>>>
>insights.<<
>
>--Good source. Are we just not funding good PR for our
>foreign policy, or are we hiring inept people? Or is
>the Bush admin so tainted by its connections to the
>oil industry that no amount of PR could help? The Bush
>admin has put so much money into appealing to American
>ideals, but why are we so bad at appealing to Arabs
>and Muslims? It can't just be because they have a
>different culture, hiphop and cowboy culture have been
>sold to the world by people who didn't really
>understand them but understood the psychology of
>public relations. Are we just hiring the wrong people?
>
>
>Michael 
>  
>
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