from: Bloodstone43956@i-mail.irs
to: Raventrap39996@i-mail.irs
date: 7518.28806
My Dear Raventrap ~
In my last I-mail I started to write about the six mistakes our clients make, and how we can exploit them. Since the little urchins naturally worry about all kinds of things that are completely out of their control, this is as good a place as any to apply pressure. As you know, worries about the future can take many forms ~ will I have enough money, will I stay healthy, will my children get jobs? Since humans are predisposed to anxiety, we need to do all we can to play upon their fears. The game is to keep them guessing: have I done enough, what did I do wrong, and most importantly, why did this happen to me? It goes without saying the question of why something happened to someone else should be kept out of our clients’ minds, unless it could be used to tempt them to blame others for their own misfortunes. Now, that’s a tasty treat!
Our strategy must proceed on two fronts. First, to exaggerate our clients’ fears in general, and second, to stir up anxiety about things they can’t change while calming their fears about things they can and should change. Our Competitor would have them look within and seek to improve themselves before trying to change others. As we know, He has it backwards. Our Executive wants our clients to work furiously to change others, to force everyone else to believe what they believe and live as they live ~ so they will never feel any particular need to change. Remember what I wrote about the self being the measure of all things? Well, the upshot is our clients usually can’t change others, at least not much, and will be forever frustrated in this regard. The benefit for The Corporation is they will be so busy trying to change what can’t be changed they won’t have time to change what can. They will fret and fume over not being able to change others, while remaining perfectly content that they are perfect just the way they are. Indeed all of life would be perfect, if others would just see the light and do things their way. When selfishness wins, we win!
Another branch of the selfishness tree is the tendency for humans to think if they can’t accomplish a particular thing, then such a thing must be impossible. We can maintain this delusion as long as we can keep evidence to the contrary out of their little heads. It’s a favorite sport among junior tempters to assure our student clients “nobody got an A on that test,” or “Professor Smith doesn’t give A’s.” That way they can dodge responsibility for their choice to go to the party the night before or put off reading the books assigned for the course. On a grander scale, getting our clients to think this way will assuage their feelings of guilt, as well as provide them a convenient excuse for failure. The little wankers are pre-disposed to avoid personal responsibility and find ways to assign blame to others. “It’s not my fault,” is their common refrain. So, it must be their boss’s fault, their coworker’s fault, their teacher’s fault, their parents’ fault, and so on. It can never be their fault, of course. Why should they expect to succeed when everyone else has failed? Why should they accept responsibility if another can be found to take the blame? We must cloud their minds to the simple fact that if one of them can do a thing, with a little effort another can too.
Yes, Raventrap, there will always be a few indomitable spirits among your clients. Deal with it. Find another weakness to exploit. For example, many over-achievers have a built-in bias against those who don’t happen to share their particular class, gender, race, religion, or political views. They can easily be given the impression they are naturally superior, or at least that they are better because they do things the way their crowd does them. So, they will view all others who understand things differently ~ it doesn’t matter if it’s politics, religion, or anything else ~ as second-rate losers because they aren’t living the “right” kind of life.
Be sure to keep your clients from recognizing that nine times out of ten, their preferences are arbitrary or trivial, and they will come to believe others have failed because of the fatal “character flaw” of being different. There is also a role for pride to play here as well. Our Competitor might have our clients be justly proud of a job well done, but if they begin to think they really are better beings because of their class, wealth, gender, race, religion, political party, and so on, well, thinking this way “leads to a fall” in Our Competitor’s opinion. Oddly enough, Our Executive would agree. Pride does lead to a fall ~ right into our hands!
As I wrote in my last I-mail, you must keep your clients from reading good books. As one of the minor human writers, Mark Twain, said, “The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.” See to it their reading list consists of tabloid newspapers, internet memes, fan magazines, and the crawl on television news programs. That way they won’t be able to follow a line of reasoning more than one step long, let alone construct a multi-step plan or a cogent argument. Discouraging our clients from the habit of reading provides many great benefits to us. They become much more gullible, and our other temptation strategies become much more likely to succeed. If we can fill their heads with inconsequential drivel, there will be much less room for facts and critical thinking. Wisdom will be left out in the cold in favor of sound bites and slogans ~ easily digestible phrases that sound good until they are examined by a mind prepared to do so by sufficient exposure to good books. The more our clients dwell on the easily digestible, the more easily digestible they will become for us.
On the other hand, there is a use for the pride of being “well-informed” or “erudite” as the academics call it. If we can plant the notion that a particular client is too smart to be fooled, or more informed than the rest, he will begin to think of himself as a “source” of truth, and will convince others to follow him. With a little prodding, he may even be persuaded to sell himself to others as “the only one who has the guts to tell you the truth” ~ the implication being all others are liars by comparison. No matter how well-researched or well-reasoned the opinions of others may be, only his opinion must prevail. This is how propaganda works, but don’t let your clients see the connection. They will feel “validated” whenever they agree with the ultimate truth-giver and he will teach them to ignore any facts that contradict his point-of-view. If you play this game right, you can even get your clients to create strong factions, each having its own “facts” leading to its own version of “the truth” ~ meanwhile reflexively viewing the opposition as liars and cheats. Ignorance can certainly provide great dividends.
Your Devoted Cousin,
Bloodstone
MurrayWorks 