What is dangerous about the new “Perception Management?”
This term has established a rock solid place in the public lexicon. Just recently, one aspect of its importance was shown in the fact that the Department of Defense defines this term in several of its latest manuals. They take this new discipline very seriously. When seeing this term for the first time the individual may compare it to public relations or spinning. Nothing could be further from the truth. People who engage in PM are not spin doctors because they are not spinning facts. They are creating facts and then passing them off as the truth. There is a critical time element involved in this practice in order to get it right and make it work. If successful, a major untruth can be established and quickly take over the entire consciousness of the world. The most dangerous fact of this is that it can happen in a heartbeat and no concentrated research, no matter how deep can uncover the true source in time to thwart the damage it causes.
As an example, one of the most popular spins during the last national election campaign was the Swift Boat attack on Senator Kerry. This broadside hit Kerry at a critical time when public opinion required a solid reason for all of these former shipmates of the Senator to come forward and dispute his testimony of his actions during Viet Nam. Kerry was broadsided and as he defended his turf with all the facts he could muster, the other candidates went on to gather the votes of his former sponsors and constituents. The accusers came from out of nowhere and by the time anyone could get a background on the credibility factor on each, they ducked back under the rock. This was a spin. Had this action been using PM techniques, the media and Kerry’s staff would have never known where to start looking. The “Swifties” would never have been found or for that matter, positively identified.
PM thrives on the media mindset that each wire service, each news channel and each major printed media must have the story and the background-First. No time for chasing the source and the credibility factor when it comes to a good juicy slam on a politician or celebrity. Get the story on the front page of the next issue or on the breaking now segment of the talking heads. Get it on a talk show a-sap and make it an expose’ that fits with the times. When someone double checks the track that the story came from and finds zip, the writers and reporters fade to another project. There is nothing like a more sensational story to cover the dirt quickly when needed. Take as a perfect example- the movie WAG THE DOG- the movie made from the novel AMERICAN HERO by Larry Beirnhart. When Moss and Brean are discussing on how they are going to buy ten days of time for the President to get around the story of him with a girl scout in his chamber alone. Brean says “What we need is a good War!–yeah a war! Together they perpetuate a story complete with news clips of a war in Albainia. That scenario was closer to PM than most “spin” stories because they actually convinced the American public that there was a war and an American soldier being held prisoner. It was a masterpiece of mass deception. It was also an indication of how gullible the public can become when there is enough to overwhelm.
In our next action adventure novel-PERCEPTION MANAGEMENT TERRORISM- due out in the spring of 2011, we describe how Islamic terrorists could use Perception Management to perpetrate mass destruction within the United States. This is the second in the “DJ Jacobs series of stories.
To catch a short glimpse of how PM could work on a global basis, take a look at David Baldacci’s new thriller THE WHOLE TRUTH-2010 Grand Central publishing. David describes an event that has the characteristics of techniques that would be used in a good worldwide scenario.
