[Paleopsych] How can Steve be successful with propaganda?

[Lynn D. Johnson, Ph.D.]

Steve, I hope this is helpful:

I think you are preaching to the choir. Imagine three groups, right, 
center, left.  Conservatives would not accept Stalin as one of them, of 
course, but would suggest he is closer to liberalism, since modern 
liberalism has been excessively influenced by socialism and Marxism. So 
conservatives would reject it out of hand. They are generally well 
educated, and some studies have shown that conservatives actually know 
more about history than liberals. (More later)

Moderates would see this as manipulative and distrust it.  You are using 
a label pejoratively, and they would say, "If he does that to 
conservatives, he will turn on us next!"  E.g.: The label/photo violates 
the reciprocity/reversability principle: Would you want someone pushing 
pejoratively labeled photos attacking liberalism? Since that is one of 
the three ways to determine what is ethical, moderates will be repelled. 
They will see it as unethical. (rightfully so, IMHO)

Only the liberals would see that with glee, and why are you catering to 
them?

If you want to influence people, you have to base your communication on 
deep truth, not on arbitrary labels. What you fail to understand is that 
the sine qua non of conservatism is the notion that government cannot 
perfect humanity. It is one of the tenets of the faith (from reading 
history - <grin>). Liberals seem to believe that government can help 
perfect society. Stalin had huge faith in government's ability to 
perfect humanity, hence his disasterous embrace of Lysenko, causing 
famines and deaths of millions of peasants.  So Stalin is a liberal run 
amok. (So also: Hitler, same basic idea; for a similarly flavored idea, 
study the essay by Virginia Postrel on Forbes.com: Resilience vs. 
anticipation - free but registration required. If you can't find it, let 
me know)

Have you read Radical Son by Horowitz? He can help you understand the 
actual conservative mind set, if you want to influence conservatives. If 
you want to influence moderates, you have to understand moderation. Read 
"How Good People Make Tough Choices" by Kidder. It will explain the 
three bases of ethical behavior and that will improve your 
communication. So far, your labeling does violate the reciprocity 
('golden rule') principle. Would you approve of someone labeling Keynes 
as "baby killer" or FDR as "warmonger"?
LJ

Steve Hovland wrote:

>Thanks for your comments.
>
>Now, with your mind viewed as a neural net,
>evaluate this:
>
> 
>
>Steve Hovland
>www.stevehovland.net
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From:	Lynn D. Johnson, Ph.D. [SMTP:ljohnson at solution-consulting.com]
>Sent:	Sunday, January 02, 2005 4:50 PM
>To:	The new improved paleopsych list
>Subject:	[Paleopsych] How can Steve be successful with propaganda? 
>
>  
>
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