The Constant Sales Pitch
I was thinking about what Boris Johnson said to Keir Starmer the a while back – ‘why don’t you build up what we are doing?’ It occurs to me that this is really key to leaders like Boris, and Nigel Farage, Donald Trump et al.
It’s similar to the if you’re not with me you’re against me, but it really makes me think of marketing. It’s all marketing – they don’t care what the actual outcome is, it’s the perception and the messaging that matters. The perception of realities can affect their realities. It’s like a hot air balloon – if you’re not actively pumping it full of hot air, it’ll stop rising. That’s why they are all so agitated about bigging up the story, fluffing it up.
There’s no real message – there’s only perception. It’s a constant sales pitch, a drumbeat of pro-them propaganda. Always be on message, and at least get people talking about you. Because if they’re talking about you they’re not talking about whatever real problem exists, that gets drowned out.
Do you think Boris cares if the news is that his hair is a mess? Great, because then they’re not digging into something he can’t change – like reality. The message is all that matters, “it’s the best in the world”, “make america great again”, “brexit means brexit” (even if the literal message is nonsensical).
It’s a trick, a ploy to keep us distracted and prevent the hard questions from being asked, and drown them out if they are. Because the hard questions are slow, methodical, and boring in comparison. We’re human, we don’t always have time to concentrate on everything, we each have our own immediate worries.
“Well, that’s the real question, isn’t it? Why? The ‘How’ and the ‘Who’ is just scenery for the public. Oswald, Ruby, Cuba, the Mafia, keeps ’em guessing like some kind of parlor game. Prevents ’em from asking the most important question: Why?”
‘X’, Oliver Stone’s J.F.K.
It’s a good reason why we have elected representatives (and also why investigative journalism is important), so that someone can take the time to ask those questions, follow up, cut through the chatter.
Without someone holding the marketeers to their promises, there’s no accountability, and that’s why they keep on pitching.