Popular Lies

With the hopes that our world is built on they were utterly out of touch,

They denied that the moon was stilton,

They denied she was even Dutch,

They denied that wishes were horses,

They denied that pigs has wings,

So we followed the Gods of the Market,

Who promised the glorious things,

From The Gods of the Copybook Headings, by Rudyard Kipling

New Lisbon, WI - Only a handful of modern Americans today will recognize the names of Edmund Burk or Justin Moser. Even less have read the two hundred page letter Reflection on the Revolution in France. However, mention another old name-H.G Wells, and his works War of the Worlds or The Time Machine, and most will know exactly what you are talking about. Few have read the Communist Manifesto or Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, yet many have heard of and have read 1984.

The large tomes are good in their way, but they are not likely, at least now, to sway popular opinion. Few could understand a stander economic paper even if they tried.

Any idea or plan can be made to sound boring and tiresome by the right speaker. When purchasing something, it has been found that the package has a great deal to do with it. When speaking voice inflection is a great decider of emotions, it is how we speak, not what we say, that will most often be remembered later on.

The simple story of the naked emperor lives on, while the long and complex treatises are soon forgotten. Books that one man writes and ten men read. While the simple stories are the ones that one man writes and all understand.

Adolf Hitler, in Mein Kampf, makes fun of his opponents because of their five hours speeches, during which he nearly went to sleep, and the opposition's spies left, they were so bored. While not surrendering principle for power, the packaging of an idea, and thus it acceptance, can be made easier in many ways.

No matter how true a statement is, if it is couched in dull and uninteresting terms, with long drawn out phrases that no one knows the meaning of and illustrated with history no one reads it will easily be lost upon the hearer. While the bold faced liar writing a novel can make us believe pigs can fly or monsters can become men. The art of writing fiction is telling lies like they are true, and it is the same with propaganda.

When we give speeches we must leave our listeners inspired, not just knowing he heard something. People like to learn simple things, let them. Do not force feed them with long words. While the principles remain relevant throughout all time, different weapons are used at different times. Swords and smoothbores are no longer appropriate.

Capture their attention in the first five seconds, their love in the first five minutes, and their impact for the next five hundred years.

Andrew C. Abbott