For Sale: A Dictatorship

The ideal community that I created was invented under the notion that I would have control of the entire world and that the whole world would do as I said. That being said, if this were truly the case, I would not have to sell my community at all--I could simply force it on people in a militaristic manner. However, as it comes to how I would have "taken over the world", the only way of creating a tribe of people who agree with me is, essentially, to lie. Having done that and gained control, it would be easy enough to implement my true plans and learn to live with the hate mail, death threats, and constant grumbling. I can only think of a few people who would voluntarily give up their freedoms for the welfare of the planet and the human race if my community were presented to them as it truly is. In order to "sell' it at all, only the positive points must be mentioned. First, there is a freedom to choose occupation and a standard salary for any occupation. Housing and public sanitation are provided, and all of life's conveniences are within easy walking/bicycling distance.There is a very strong social network, no tolerance for crime, and benefits for supporting/aiding the city including a better form of social security. We will work to eliminate the overpopulation problem by providing adequate birth control, and most of the hassles of our current society would be done away with.  If you do not care to live in big cities, you may choose to live outside of the city and help care for the city's food supply and be granted special benefits for your contributions. I am sure that many vegans would appreciate the fact that I would close down meat companies (butcheries, farms, production lots, processing plants, etc), but I am positive that many meat eaters would want to put me on the grill. 

Using these notions as an appeal to any human's desire for paradise, it might be simple enough to gain a tribe. However, as soon as freedoms began disappearing, or the government began poking its nose in places many people feel it doesn't belong, it would be nearly impossible to keep the tribe I had gained. It is very similar to the current story of President Obama. All of the world hailed him as a savior, but once the changes began being made, people stopped caring for him altogether and are now looking forward to the 2012 elections.

In short, it is hard to be honest about one's intentions and keep a "tribe"--especially with an ever increasingly fickle market of followers to choose from.

Please read this for Monday:  "4 Ways Advertising Gets Tricky and Wacky."

the american dream.

"Purposeful effort comes to mean, primarily, effort directed to or resulting in a more creditable showing of accumulated wealth"

We live in the United States, which has now coined a term that we all love to hear: The American Dream. This "dream" can be achieved by a motto that says "If you want success, you can get success." In one way or another, we all live in some sort of facilitated "American Dream." We all want to be successful, so why deny that we want to be a part of it? "Follow your heart, follow your dreams, follow your passions..." These are all statements that fall under the American Dream. It's become so popular that it's the ideal that anyone would want to reach, as if you reach this point, you will achieve true happiness, true wealth, and true success. But success for who?

This is all focused inwardly. I want success. I want wealth. I want fame. I want attention. I want it. It's as if they have no regard for what others want or need. No matter what one does, it's just a means for them to climb up the ladder.

So to that I say this.

Screw the American Dream.

It's just become another boring cliche. No one cares about anything anymore except for themselves. Celebrities only join non-profit organizations and donate millions of dollars to poor children because they know it would be good PR for them. They don't care about who they're helping, because they only help themselves. The same can be said about anyone, anywhere today.

People only want to be heard and people only want to put in their two cents because they want to make a name for themselves. That's the reality of today's world, and it's ugly. Success is only achieved selfishly, and most of the time it's not even looked at as a bad thing. We look at successful people and say "I want that for myself." Successful people, in turn, only make for more selfish people.

What's in store for me? That is the question we all ask, no matter how much we give. That's our human condition. But I find that most people are successful not because of how much wealth they acquire and give away. More successful people are people who genuinely forget about themselves and their fame and their wealth and their own names even. And give that success to someone else.

But then, we are in a conundrum. Because that successful person will help someone to be successful, and in turn they could either grow up to be genuinely successful, or live the cliche "American Dream."

Success is failure.

-a

How YOU Doin'?

Please send me an e-mail this week (steve@t1resources.com) telling me what grade you would assign yourself so far for our in-class discussions.  Remember, class participation counts toward your grade and can be a key factor in bumping you up (or down) to the next grade level.

Tell me what YOU think you deserve, were the semester to end this week.  If you're not happy with the result, tell me how you'll improve. Thanks!

Blog Post for Friday, Nov 12th

In the midterm, you outlined your ideal community based on the concepts you found important in our readings thus far.

Now spell out how you would galvanize others around YOUR community. Why should I want to live there? Why and how would it better than where I am now? Using Seth Godin's notion, how would you create a 'tribe' of fellow believers? Sell it!

What difficulties might you encounter in convincing others of your utopian vision? Can you think of other visionaries who struggled in this way?

More About The Project

Several of you have asked for clarification on the major project which I've titled the "Influencing and Persuading" project.  In previous iterations of this class, students were asked to visit a local mall and analyze the shopping experience.  You are free to do that, but in this day and age so much of our shopping and exposure to brands occurs in settings other than malls and thus the analysis should follow where the brands lead.

I see the assignment rolling out as follows:

• Pick a company, brand, political campaign or issue.
• Analyze the basic underlying message.  A good way to structure your thinking is through a so-called audience analysis:
• Analyze: Who is the audience?
• Understand: What is the audience's knowledge of the subject?
• Demographics: What is their age, gender, income level, etc.?
• Interest- Why might they pay attention to the message?
• Environment- Where will this message be sent/viewed?
• Needs- What are the audience's needs associated with the message topic?
• Expectations- What action does the sender wish the audience to take?  Buying, obviously, but anything else?
•  

I hope this is helpful. We'll go through an analysis in class so you have an opportunity to work through an example.

"Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for - in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it."
Ellen Goodman (1941 - )