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Guest Post: The "Perception Management" Economy
Submitted by Charles Hugh Smith from Of Two Minds
The "Perception Management" Economy
Rather than actually address the fundamental issues at the heart of the "jobless recession," the Status Quo has engaged in a massive campaign of perception management, a.k.a. propaganda.
A number of euphemisms are used for the concerted Status Quo effort to convince the public to maintain their belief in faltering institutions and a debt-based consumerist economy. The most neutral euphemism is "persuasion," followed by the slightly more sinister "shaping the context" and "setting the agenda." More directly, the effort is known as propaganda.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, perception management is a psychological-operations (psych-ops) term of Pentagon origins. The basic mechanisms are classic propaganda techniques. From the Wikipedia entry:
There are nine strategies for perception management. These include:
Preparation — Having clear goals and knowing the ideal position you want people to hold.
Credibility — Make sure all of your information is consistent, often using prejudices or expectations to increase credibility.
Multichannel support — Have multiple arguments and fabricated facts to reinforce your information.
Centralized control — Employing entities such as propaganda ministries or bureaus.
Security — The nature of the deception campaign is known by few.
Flexibility — The deception campaign adapts and changes over time as needs change.
Coordination — The organization or propaganda ministry is organized in a hierarchical pattern in order to maintain consistent and synchronized distribution of information.
Concealment — Contradicting information is destroyed.
Untruthful statements — Fabricate the truth.
Why expend treasure and resources on a propaganda campaign that is doomed to run aground on the sharp reefs of reality? Two reasons: it's cheaper and less risky than real change. The Status Quo has a tremendous stake in maintaining the present structure and hierarchy of control, power and wealth. Enabling real change introduces uncertainty and thus risk, and so the lowest-risk response to devolution is to convince people that the erosion is not actually happening.
This is also much less costly than actually introducing potentially destabilizing real change.
But reality, unlike perception, cannot be changed by propaganda. The Chinese buying Italian debt, for example, does not make the debt or Italy's insolvency go away.
Thus the Status Quo's campaign of "solving" fundamental problems with perception management will necessarily fail. A noteworthy example is the Eurozone's Status Quo attempt to convince everyone that Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy will not default, when their default is already unavoidable.
Human behavior, as reflected by the stock market, can be manipulated in the short-term: yet another announcement that Greece has been saved is followed by a 200 or 300-point rally, which fades as the tides of reality soon wash over the sand castles of perception management.
The Status Quo in Euroland can set all the agendas it wants and announce all the rescues it wants, but none of that propaganda will reduce the crushing debts by a single euro. Sand castles are no match for the tides of reality.
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the BAT formation is back..the last 100 PT ES rally has completed the left wing of the bat... Greece jubilation already priced in.. now we fall?
bat wing - http://www.hedgeaccording.ly/2011/09/bat-is-back-s-on-cusp-spy.html
Agreed.
No matter what any bullshit politician or corrupt banker says or does - the debt is still there and growing!
The only solution is collapse!
Andrew Jackson killed the second national bank, and the Federal Reserve put him on the $20 dollar bill. How's that for perception.
It is time that we remember the old word's of our forefathers.
"A Den of Vipers and Thieves"
http://thehardrightedge.com/currency/
I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs. -- Thomas Jefferson
How the Federal Reserved Robbed the American Public, Per Jefferson's Warning: (Inflation Statistics Here)
Central Bank Established:
December 23rd, 1913. While many congressman were at home with their families for the holidays.
First by inflation:
January 1914-September 1929, Government Reported Inflation: +74%
Then by deflation:
October 1929-December 1939, Government Reported Inflation: -19.08%
Then by new policy:
1933: US Government makes US Dollar no longer redeemable for gold bullion by American citizens, effectively removing the population off of the gold standard.
Then by Inflation again:
January 1940-August 1971, Government Reported Inflation: +193.53%
Then by more new policy: (Federal Reserve note adopts full issuing power of nation's currency)
August 1971: The Bretton Woods Agreement; Termination of the gold standard and the creation of the dollar as the world reserve currency, backed only by the trust that the Federal Government would be able to repay its accumulated debt (Wikipedia Source Here)
And since, much more inflation:
September 1971-July 2011 Government Reported Inflation: +453.73%
And the grand finale, unfolding in front of our very eyes:
With respect, I think it's a mistake to suggest that the standing armies haven't been used to enable the bankers. They are, IMHO, co-dependent.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y06NSBBRtY
FYI, it is little known that Ike REMOVED the term "Congressional" from his "Military-Industrial complex" speech as being simply too hard a truth to tell. But, it's my understanding that his original intention was to warn of the "Military-Industrial-Congressional" complex. Hopefully, we'll put whatever remains after the reset together within a more sustainable framework than crony capitalism.
Government subsidized prozac for everyone.
Off topic: seems like this would generate a bunch of ZH humor. The Amish Bernie Madoff.
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2011/09/amish_investor_charged_with_de.html
"Castles made of sand fall into the sea, eventually..."
Jimi Hendrix
"Hey Joe, where you goin' with that gun in yo hand?"--Hey Joe (Hendrix cover, I know--but he owns it now)
my favorite hendrix song
Are these articles or more of a note-to-self?
You know, I come here for some original insight and not six articles a day of shit that is so clearly obvious...
Yet you still take the time to post?
Absolutely. You see, an article on todays CB intervention has already been posted by TD. It contains insight, some charts and a general outlook. This article contains nothing but what has been obvious, pure static.
I'd much prefer less quality articles than a bunch of... of... well this.
If I can disuade CHS from posting things that need not be posted in order to get more from this site, I will. If not, no harm done right?
You dont need my permission to do what ever you want.
But my advice would be to stop reading and posting on an article you dont like.
hey, plaz! still can't see you here w/out thinking of you as one of the best-racked avatars in z-herstory!
in fairness to gene who is really being an asswipe, especially to c.h.smith, and which i think is fine, tyler doesn't say who the "guest post" is writtien by, so people hafta see for themselves. then, strange things can, and do happen
i don't have a problem with any of this. if tyler wants "reads" which = clickz, go get em!
some people may not like simon, or theodore, or alvin, but let's get w/ the program, here, gene, ok? at the very least, one can take the opportunity to go off-topic. right?
Plads point is well taken. Don't post, STFU. The problem is: if nobody stirs the shit once in a while then we can't gauge where we're at here @ ZH. Clearly I got some people who agree.
As far as this article goes it is something CHS simply emitted without any real thought. Like the way gas is emitted, completely without substance unless he wishes us to now consider him a 'psy-ops' specialist, which, I can guarantee you, he isn't. Talk finance, not more or less, or take Plads advice and don't piece together a shit article and nobody will call you out. Simple.
Gene,
CHS is largely a regurgitator. Little to no original content.
I read quite a bit of financial news, blogs etc...He liberally appropriates the work of others...somtimes he's honest and cites their work...sometimes not.
Once your read a handful of his articles, you've read them all in many repects because he returns to the same old tired themes and language.
Being a true "psy-ops" specialist is too much work.
I also don't know why the Tylers continue to post his work other than "eyeballs."
It's always the guy in the bleacher seats yelling at the players on the field about how to play the game.
If you've got something more insightful to add then go ahead. Write it. we'll be waiting.
If you don't...then why don't you just pour yourself a nice tall cool glass of STFU and go sit in the corner.
Your analogy truly reflects that you are, in fact, completely alien to IQ.
like I said...if you got something better to add...then go ahead. if not. STFU.
and on a personal note: go fuck yourself.
Gene I hear ya, articles on how theyre full of crap with in depth analysis of the composition of the bullshit grow weary.
Dude... you have no idea. CHS at this point might as well be employed by Soros. I swear... it sounds insane but I'm really starting to believe that some of these characters are only here to absorb the outrage so-to-speak. These yeah-I-know-it's-all-manipulated-bullshit-but-we-got-em-where-we-want-em posts are seriously just(paradoxically) more bullshit.
People 4 years ago didnt want to hear how Soros grabbed up and groomed Obama to be his little president puppet...you were called a 'kook racist' who had no idea...hope and change was to be delivered to all! So I dont want to hear it from people today.
i'd be right there w/ you & gene, SD1...
...if perception management wasn't important to slewie, either...
You might be on the wrong website then if you're looking for "1001 Toilet Jokes"
The site gets new readers all the time. Even if the story is old to you. The article was succinct and, given today's 'stick save', timely. It took 2 minutes to read it.
You want "articles"? Go to CNBC.com, or money.cnn.com or whatever other horsehit corporatist "news" site out there that "specializes" in "personal finance" written by failed journalism majors pretending to know shit about "finance".
There's tons of "articles" on those sites.
Short: truth. Long: consequences.
Of course, when everything they tried fails to solve any real issues, they will offer *reforms* so that the status quo still can remain to be the status quo. Nothing is new under the sun.
I guess we just dont get it. It's not our money
http://nation.foxnews.com/rep-jan-schakowsky/2011/09/14/dem-rep-you-dont-deserve-keep-all-your-money
The people DONT deserve to keep their money, because theyre sheeple and willingly hand over whatever some pencil jockey or other demands, and allows bankers to pay other bankers from their pocket. So the bullies run the playground, ok so what?
Disagree entirely. You earn it, you deserve it. If you decide to blow it all on flat screens or ponzi schemes or Hot Pockets or iCrap, that's your business and none of mine.
Why do you continue to live on the land of a landlord who disagrees with you?
Holy fucking shit.
And notice how Huntsman, I think it was, in the recent Republican gab fest, wouldn't|couldn't give a straight answer to the young man's question "How much of each one dollar I earn do you think it's fair for me to keep" (or words to that effect).
Message for the EZ: LET MY PEOPLE GO !!!!!!
The 10th strategy is DISCREDITING, as in tearing down anyone who speaks out against the propaganda.
Joe Wilson comes to mind.
"You can ignore reality..."
PRECISAMENTE!! If it's my job to keep inflation low (and I get to measure inflation), and I get to set interest rates, and oh, wait, I'm also the biggest borrower in the world, let's see, what are my incentives - keep rates low, print more money, AND say inflation is low - and presto! - so be it. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain...
Good article.
The total dishonesty of all the governments is disgusting, dishonest politicians have been discussed throughout time but they are presently trying to set new records.
google "John Rendon perception management"
Actually, I've been arguing the general tenor of this theme for years now, going so far as to say the the corporate owned Main Stream Media (8 corporations own all networks, cable stations and radio stations in the U.S., and these corporations are always looking to Uncle Sugar for support and honey - e.g. GE's extensive 'green' programs) is in on the government propaganda effort to maintain/instill as much confidence (or CONfidence) as the real economy keeps deteriorating.
This is why so many people are so confused today. What they see and hear from friends, family and neighbors is incompatible with the much of the headlines and "news reports" are telling them, so it creates misorientation.
The government is desperate to keep those who have jobs and incomes from realizing how bad things are, or else they, too, will stop spending, which decreases economic activity, takes cash out of circulation, and further adversely impacts the jobs crisis.
When a good chunk of DGIs wake up, they'll already be wearing burlap sacks.
Again to quote Orwell....
"And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed -- if all records told the same tale -- then the lie passed into history and became truth. "
If they can get everyone to go along with the lie, then the lie becomes.. at least on the surface, the reality.
And The media would have us believe all the BS McGuffins that 'cause' the market to move. Thank God we at least have ZeroHedge. Long live the Tyler's....
Means a new Bull Market is born! Buy it up and make money the rest is just NOISE!
the coming CRASH will make 1929 look like a day at Disney Land
shaz...I think youre right...it's not going to go down slow....
NAZIs and Gadafi.....enough said.
Ben rain in Europe as well stuff the cash no chance for crush
The world is ruled by and for the benefit of about 400 million Socialist bureaucrats ! Their privileges at the "Fiat Slop Trough" are what it's all about ! They are the real "Rothschilds and Bildebergs" of the Socialist world order ! They are the head of the snake ! From North Korea to Switzerland to the USA, they have more interests in common with each other than the people they feed off ! They are the Parasites that keep the world poor ! They are the conspiracy that always gets a pass......because their intentions are good and they just are what is ! Monedas 2011 They are the "Untouchables" !
Thank you for that example of misdirection to prove CHS's point. Now, can we get back to the comedy tour?
Les McCann: Tryin to make it real compared to what?
We have run another stop sign, reached another tipping point when the power of propaganda surpasses the strength of the economy. Still, we can't blame unethical disciples of Bernays and Goebbels. After all, human beings can be convinced of almost anything.
“ And of the Cannibals that each other eat,The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders. ” — Othello, Act 1. Scene III
Reward the profligate and punish the responsible.
Not sure why everybody can't get behind that?
I'm pretty sure that's what Jesus meant in the new testament about the first shall fuck the last and the least among us will be made to pay for eternity for the sins of greatest among us...something like that though I'm not really a biblical scholar.
Congrats! Great writing, intelligent. Like it!
This article makes several excellent points, one of which I had pondered myself just the other day. China snapping up Italian bonds doesn't make them any more solvent but doesn't it make the end game that much worse? When the bonds eventually don't get repaid there will be that much more doo doo out there to explode, to detonate. We know the ECB is stuffed to the gills and it did no more good than postpone the inevitable.
This is what Black Swans are made of.
Nice.
Good article, yea, meanwhile DOW is up +200 again and no one does a thing about it so pointless article unless people stop putting up with it all.
Ive had enough articles explaining how they 'trick' you and youre really screwed.
No worries, SheepDog, you're just savvy and and maybe a little jaded. Let ZH be an alarm clock for those who are waking up, as CogDis pointed out not long ago.
"... and maybe a little jaded."
That is an understatement.
JFK......I never saw the entire movie but watched a bit of it....
CASE IN POINT IS THAT MOVIE....AND....FOR THE REAL TRUTH...Look at L Blow Job the day they landed in Dallas (lbj's home turf)...that morning...they have footage of JFK shaking hands....LBJ looks like he is at the funeral already....seriously!! not shitting around. He looks like a boy who lost his dog. Looks down, very very glum looking....One could speculate that he felt bad for what he orchestrated but I dont think so...I think he's pyschotic. Empty inside...like that show Dexter!!!
It's very creepy the way LBJ looks that morning....JFK is like Mr. Roark..."smiles everyone...smiles"...fucked up.
I don't know about LBJs involvement/knowledge but it seems the CIA was deep in it. Check out: JFK and the Unspeakable by James W. Douglass
This is a good chart that Stacy Herbert presented on Max Keiser's most recent show. Reality and perception...
10 Year Deltas
http://www.deptofnumbers.com/blog/2011/01/10-year-deltas.png
http://www.deptofnumbers.com/blog/2011/01/ten-years/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=MGmayjYQpB8
Agreed with the author up to some extent that markets are sentiments driven and perceptions of human behavior reflects on market. there are people who analyze it very well and give accurate predictios. We follow http://www.forecastfortomorrow.com/ these guys always hit the nail.
A slave must produce more then the slave comsume or no profit is made.
This is the problem now, this is the problem that will end all reasonable thought.
it look like TPTB just bought 90 days w/ the "new repo" of $$$ for EU banksters' fecal matter, which is ironically "fair" given the amount of ca-ca we "sold" them b4 the last "bubble" made that tell-tale sound. apparently, economists have yet to discover that bubbles are not stable pricing mechanisms or interfecal interfaces
i sure hope the europeons don't mind the FED and the US/china openly showng their hand in the political future of the EU, but maybe the swiss will come outa their coma soon, since they have nothing to "do" w/ the EU except support its currency, and they are pretty much just rothschild slaves, now, before the NWO. with freaking guns!
remind you of anybody we know?
The great thing about Propaganda Campaigns is that they have limited downside risk... esp. when you have "Usual Suspects" you can blame for your incompetence...
OT but a nice flash crash in copper today -
http://shared.websol.barchart.com/chartcache/eeda64dc3a60d0b86b2e92962bc...
I was just reading a post from earlier this morning. There was a link to a Fulford articl so I did some googling. Now I'm reading about some $9.1 Trillion missing---and not connected to the $16 Trillion, and thinking about the 2 recent and unusual trips to Europe that Timmy made---this $16TT that got swept under the rug---now $9.1TT newly "Lost":
http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=9E2A4EA8-6E73-4BE2-A753-62060DCBB3C3
The first top-to-bottom audit of the Federal Reserve uncovered eye-popping new details about how the U.S. provided a whopping $16 trillion in secret loans to bail out American and foreign banks and businesses during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. An amendment by Sen. Bernie Sanders to the Wall Street reform law passed one year ago this week directed the Government Accountability Office to conduct the study. "As a result of this audit, we now know that the Federal Reserve provided more than $16 trillion in total financial assistance to some of the largest financial institutions and corporations in the United States and throughout the world," said Sanders. "This is a clear case of socialism for the rich and rugged, you're-on-your-own individualism for everyone else."
Among the investigation's key findings is that the Fed unilaterally provided trillions of dollars in financial assistance to foreign banks and corporations from South Korea to Scotland, according to the GAO report. "No agency of the United States government should be allowed to bailout a foreign bank or corporation without the direct approval of Congress and the president," Sanders said.
"No agency of the United States government should be allowed to bailout a foreign bank or corporation without the direct approval of Congress and the president," Sanders said.
The Federal Reserve Bank is NOT an agency of the US Government.
How about: "No private corporation should be allowed to control the currency of a sovereign nation."
+1
Or "no tiny minority may form a global cartel to enslave the planet."
I'd just as much prefer reading these kinds of articles than hearing the central planners blabbler and repeat their propaganda over and over and over and over...
Twisted perceptions, reality doesn't budge.
BTF'nD!
not for those who refuse to see it as a process of some incomprehensible beauty, above and including life
for others, we all know the "it's as real as this chair" folks, don't we?
click on this shithead's name and see that he's "evolving"! Respirating, libertarian / evolving anarchist, who is here for over 2 weeks, now and wants to make a "deal" to sell t-shirts!
"I would also like to advertise on ZH and make a ZH donation for
every shirt sold. Anarchyteez.com coming to the net next week.
Hope to talk to you soon Tyler and thanks for your work."
and this is his 5th post, too!
two.5 weeks ago, he said his "new website" [yep! anarchyteez.con!] would be up "in a week"
maybe his mom made him clean his room, cut the grass, and paint the garage and won't let him spend much time "inline" untile he catches up on the rent...
...or he noticed tha "Anarch Tee" might have a less hopeful view of his business plan...and his "domain name"...
i'll bet tyler can't wait to do business w/ this fuking nutcase...
...but he did mention "donation"...
i wonder what gerald celente 'donates'?
when i googled this was the first link/topic. I also found dates of Tim's trips to Europe---2 this past week, and now he is saying, with absolute certainty, that "Money" is guaranteed Not a problem. Of course he's talking about Printing
Federal Reserve Bank Reports to Congress that $9.1 Trillion is ...[ if above doesn't open, below is the link ]
http://americansforfreedom.org/videos/11/1804Federal Reserve Bank Reports to Congress that $9.1 Trillion is suddenly Missing Read more:
I suspect that maybe the $9.1T went the same way as the following article posted during the budget debate in congress in July of this year.
The more I read, the more I understand, the more I'm concerned my mom was right and that the world may not be fair. That bad people may win. Malice may be rewarded. Those with ill gotten gains will not be giving em back in this lifetime. Graft, theft, half turths, and dishonesty have become admired business qualities and money (printing) may be it's own reward.
Time for a lobotomie or few weeks in the gulag to get my head straightened out...anybody have a spare blue pill?
Odd to think that all this time we haven't been cynical enough. We thought we were doing pretty well in that department, even took pride in our world-weary perspective. Now it turns out, as events become increasingly surreal and schizogenic, that we were modest in our attempt at cynicism. Welcome to the behavioral sink, to the abbatoir.
No rule that another QE must be officially announced, including Europe
The intraday low for the DJIA on Monday, September 12 was 10,789.87. The DJIA has rallied almost 650 points from those lows within 4 sessions... while the macroeconomic data just released for the US has been dismal.
Gee, there is no op-ex manipulation going on here...
How much more FUBAR can this get.
Mr.Smith, I wonder if you are somehow talking tomy friends or reading my blog. (lol). the piece is rather accurate, but this statement needs tweaking:
"Why expend treasure and resources on a propaganda campaign that is doomed to run aground on the sharp reefs of reality? Two reasons: it's cheaper and less risky than real change. The Status Quo has a tremendous stake in maintaining the present structure and hierarchy of control, power and wealth. Enabling real change introduces uncertainty and thus risk, and so the lowest-risk response to devolution is to convince people that the erosion is not actually happening.
This is also much less costly than actually introducing potentially destabilizing real change.'
This is of course from the perspective of the governing elites, not to the serfs. For us deestabilzing change isn't that costly because we have less to loose and the potential upside is large. The reality for the elites, and those in control is any form of change has more potential downside than up. Even if the change is not destabilizing, the change may cause you to loose your status. destabilizing of course just makes that potential larger. A good way to think of it is asymetric warfare. what are you going to do to some guy who lives in a cave, has no running water, etc. (the serfs), but what can this guy do to you (the elites), who has a mansion, etc. He only has upwards movement potential, you compared to him only have down.
Our oil and consumer goods are massively subsidized by foreign accumulation of our debt ... the downside of losing that (especially the oil) are huge.
Now of course the status quo is fundamentally unstable, but the alternative could turn out very nasty. For instance if we go deflationary and try to make good on our debt there is a good chance the tables will get turned, and we will have the population living in dorms next to the factory making products for foreign countries ...
While others above have complained that the article is stating the obvious, you have totally missed the point of the article: That the outcome is inevitable notwithstanding the attempts to paper [pun intended] over the problem.
Fact is: you're going to lose that foreign accumulation ... and real soon, too. The sensible thing to do -- as with any disease -- would have been to take the remedy (cut spending, bring troops home, and facilitate re-building the industrial base) at the first sign of symptoms (back in 2007, or 1999, or sooner) ... not to wait until after the whole body is racked with the disease and fixin' to die!
It's too late now for simple remedies. Next year will be too late for any remedies. A new paradigm is needed ... and not one that involves more central planning (à la Soros and the NWO)!!
Lovely
Well MOPE isn't working so well on the precious metals front lately. BIG push down on gold and silver prices today but I barely saw any movement on mining stocks.
Noobody's fooled anymore. The short term manipulation down is viewed as an opportunity to buy physical. Meanwhile the producers stay steady. The demand for gold and silver is only going up - along with their value.
You can paint it any way you want but everybody's still printing paper money without limit - and the big boys (inclusing central banks) are BUYING gold. I wonder when the grab occusr for Greece and Italy's stash. Libya's still seems to be MIA - like a good part of Iraq's.
Perception management only works if there is work to do. No work, no perception problem. It sucks, no matter what the DJIA is at. What is really mystifying, is why this is so mystifying to the academics in charge. Oh wait, I understand that too. They are all getting paid, and pay raises. Awesome.
This is a great blog posting and very useful. I really appreciate the research you put into it.
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