Dear Smart People Charged with Influencing Idiots, How's Your Fiction? @spockosbrain

Dear Smart People Charged with Influencing Idiots, How's Your Fiction?

by Spocko

Heh.

This is the kind of entertaining, cynical comedy that makes me nod my head in agreement. You might too.

You see, I'm a liberal smart person who wants to be seen as smarter than I am.

I see myself doing activities or working on activities like those listed at :54 seconds, and wondering if I, and they, have zero influence.

I see myself, or friends, doing jobs like the ones described at 1:53.

I don't like thinking or feeling I have zero influence. It feels like a Simpson's clip. "Kids, you tried your best and you failed miserably, the lesson is, never try."

There is the part of me, and I'm betting a bunch of you, that needs to have hope.

The success using our "smart people ways" are much greater than zero. For example, the FCC Net Neutrality vote.

The cynical will say, "Well, that action only happened because the rich people wanted it to happen." That was the line I heard after the FCC Net Neutrality vote.
That opinion doesn't take into account the cumulative and supporting effects of all the actions. It also misses another huge important strategic move:

Figure out how to use rich people and companies who want some of the same things you want

It reminded me of how I went about de-funding right-wing talk radio.
I convinced rich people (advertisers) that they didn't want to associate their brands with the violent, sexist, racist, and bigoted comments coming out of talk radio.

How did that happen? Through passionate emails, letters, blogging, tweets and phone calls.

Who did it? People like my friend James Madison (not his real name), Angelo with @stopbeck and all the wonderful people who work on #stoprush.

This was NOT a Zero Influence action. It has had 100's of million of dollars of influence on some companies bottom lines. That is a big fraking deal.

But, but Spocko, Rush is still on the air! Glenn Beck got booted off of Fox News, but he's still on radio! They are still making money from other sources! They still have Influence!

Yes, but they are now diminished in a way that pisses rich conservative people off. And that is always fun.

Now the rich have to pay for their propaganda more directly. They loved the idea that their propaganda was influential AND made them money. They liked to rub that line in the faces of liberals, 'Ha, ha! Our radio propaganda MAKES money!"

At this point I usually remind people that Rupert Murdoch's New York Post loses about 110 million dollars a year. Every. Single. Year. Also, think tanks don't turn a profit. They beg for donor money Every. Single. Year.

Yet they sell a product. Ideas and Metaphors about how they want the world to work.

Which leads me to the other kind of influence the we wield that cynical smart people like to dismiss. Language, Metaphors and Fiction.

I thought this example of the influence of fiction was an interesting one:
It's from The Take Away, John Hockenberry's new NPR show. It is about the "soft power" of fictional TV on North Korea.

If I'm one of those "smart people" who is charged with influencing idiots or smart people, I'd look to fiction.

Ideas, values and culture in fiction are some of America's biggest exports. We are soaking in so many common ideas and values that we don't really see them anymore. As they say, "Fish don't discover water."

I want to look at how we talk about the economy and torture. The interesting thing is that when we change how we talk about things in our fiction, it can change how we talk about things in our non-fiction.

Looking at the media coverage of the budget and torture, I've noticed how people are carefully choosing the language, metaphors and stories they use to talk about these areas, in both fiction and non-fiction.

I'd like to have some influence in this area, we can make changes. Hopefully greater than zero. It's very possible. We did it before and we can do it again.

Tomorrow: National Budgets. Which Fiction Does the Media Like and Why.