Managing My Own Perceptions

There has been "something" lurking in the back of my mind since Obama appeared so suddenly on the national scene, unseasoned, inexperienced, inadequate credentials, and was elected President. His first 6 months or so seemed to confirm that he was not qualified to hold the top office, so I wondered how he got it: someone had to start the ball rolling. I began to believe that someone with a personal agenda manipulated the [social] media to create a perception that did not necessarily conform to reality. Right time; right place; right financial backing; one person's personal pick in place and running the country.

I listened to Glenn Beck during the run-up to the election, who, at times, seemed delusional, but, at other times, seemed to have done his homework, especially on George Soros: absolute power does corrupt absolutely when one person with too much wealth becomes a world power and a country’s decision-maker. Beck exposed documented truths about people in power, as well as the extremely wealthy people behind the curtain. A person’s credibility can be compromised by innuendo faster than by truth, so (someone) planted the ideas, watered them occasionally, and voila: problem person, Beck, disappears, while the wealthy power base continues unchallenged.

OJ walked with the catch phrase if it doesn’t fit, you must acquit; more recently, the CMA trial's stunning verdict confirmed that far too many people prefer their personal perception to the crime’s reality. Reasonable doubt rested with jurors who created their own versions of the crime, as well a list of alternate perpetrators, not supported with factual evidence presented during the trial. It is far too easy for one person to force personal perception onto a group because people seldom care enough to stop, look, and listen carefully to what is being said before reacting to it and then acting on it. Evidence is not really useful when it doesn’t conform to what an individual wants to believe. Today, reality is posted on Facebook!

I'm currently reading David Baldacci's The Whole Truth, a book about PM: Perception Management. The premise is that "Created truth [is] controllable" because "real truth [is] too unpredictable.” The character who manufactures/ manipulates/ manages "created truth" asks the question, "Why try to hide the needle in the haystack, when you can just make lots of needles?" That is a reasonable explanation for the legal tactics used by the CMA defense: fill the crime with a haystack full of needles and dare the jurors to find the right one. Most people will be happy to find any needle and move on: taking the time to figure out which one needle is the right needle is … dare I say it? … a waste of time in this age of instant gratification, instant messages, and personal agendas.

But this concept of Perception Management also pertains to current politics, reflecting in my mind back to Joe McCarthy, who created the Red Menace, then made all people believe it because that was his fear, his perception, his power base. His catch phrase was “Better dead than Red,” so anyone he could tinge even slightly pink suddenly found him/herself on a national stage, trying to defend a career, a reputation, a lifetime, against a man determined to destroy him/her. Playwright Arthur Miller used as his vehicle the fear of witches in Salem, Massachusetts, to help readers understand that any one person can create a menace that affects all of us by evoking our most primitive fears. In Miller’s case, a seemingly innocent young girl imagined herself in an affair with a married man, then struck out in anger when she was rebuffed. The townspeople believed the apparently guileless young girl, whose accusations of witchcraft took the focus off herself by blaming others. By the end of the play, everyone’s lives were ruined because the young girl’s unsupported accusations became the people’s reality.

Applying this thinking to the current financial crisis, the reality is whatever perception is in the media today! Although everyone is saying the same thing, "We have to change what we're doing," no one has a clear vision for that change. My perception is that it makes no difference how much money we print and/or how big our debt is because it's not real. This perception developed in the aftermath of the last financial crisis: those of us who stuck to a budget, who paid our bills, who prioritized our lifestyle to conform to our income, were screwed, while those who were in over their heads financially were bailed out at our expense. After that experience, what difference does it really make how much anyone, including the government owes? Just print more money, but make sure everyone gets some and keeps spending it. The money is simply a vehicle for exchanging goods and services, and that's what counts: how many goods and services we exchange to keep the country working.

My reality rests on someone else’s perception, and my perception is the reality I have created for the world around me. In some strange, senseless way, it all makes sense!