Calvin the Super Genius
October 14, 2014·0 comments·game theory
Institutions have adopted a strategy of managing public behavior through carefully constructed language that stops short of outright falsehood. The words are chosen for their effect, not their accuracy. What worked for marketing products fails completely when applied to social policy, because citizens recognize the manipulation even as they appear to go along with it. This creates an illusion of consensus that cracks the moment reality contradicts the narrative.
- The gap between what we're told and what we're allowed to question has become impossibly narrow. Asking reasonable questions about disease control or monetary policy is now treated as evidence of panic or ignorance, not evidence of engagement.
- Leaders believe they are playing a deeper, smarter game than the public. They stack narratives expecting citizens to absorb them as individual decisions, but this assumes we haven't noticed the mechanics of the persuasion.
- Consensus-by-announcement isn't the same as consensus-by-conviction. Going along with a story to maintain social stability is not the same as accepting it. The distinction matters when reality intervenes.
- Every policy built on this foundation carries an expiration date. One counter-factual event, one sick nurse, one market movement that contradicts the official story, and the entire linguistic effort reveals itself as staged.
- The cost of this approach isn't just lost credibility. It's the loss of something more fundamental: the authentic trust between institutions and the people they govern. What happens when that trust breaks completely?
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