Monday, May 03, 2004
Public Diplomacy
Who is in charge of the US image abroad? Guess what? Nobody in the White House is in charge. Charlotte Beers tried, and failed. Now, Margaret Tutwiler resigned and nobody else is going to be nominated before… November.
In the meanwhile, 60 minutes shows the pictures of naked Irakis prisoners being humiliated by American women soldiers. CBS is in charge of public diplomacy, with Al Jazeera and the BBC, and soon Chirac will have his own CNN a la francaise!
SO THE WORLD IS GOING TO HAVE MORE REASONS TO HATE US, WHILE… NOBODY IS IN CHARGE IN WASHINGTON. By the way, if no woman is in charge of public diplomacy in Washington ,women soldiers and the Army Reserve General ( a woman) are the real ones in charge of American public diplomacy…as seen on the jail abuse photographs.
In the meanwhile, 60 minutes shows the pictures of naked Irakis prisoners being humiliated by American women soldiers. CBS is in charge of public diplomacy, with Al Jazeera and the BBC, and soon Chirac will have his own CNN a la francaise!
SO THE WORLD IS GOING TO HAVE MORE REASONS TO HATE US, WHILE… NOBODY IS IN CHARGE IN WASHINGTON. By the way, if no woman is in charge of public diplomacy in Washington ,women soldiers and the Army Reserve General ( a woman) are the real ones in charge of American public diplomacy…as seen on the jail abuse photographs.
Friday, April 30, 2004
Temporarily or Definitly OFF CODE?
Knowing the code of the presidency allows you to understand why some of the democrats are now wondering whether JF Kerry is on code.
Is Bush off code? definitly? or temporarily?
What's the goal? where is the dream? why do we have to go through this humiliation in Iraq?
The CONNECTOR in chief is failing to connect the current situation to the goal once more.
WHO IS GOING TO WIN THIS ELECTION? The way things are going, nobody is actually going to win. The only thing one can say is that one of the candidates is going to be more off-code that the other and lose.
Dr. R
Is Bush off code? definitly? or temporarily?
What's the goal? where is the dream? why do we have to go through this humiliation in Iraq?
The CONNECTOR in chief is failing to connect the current situation to the goal once more.
WHO IS GOING TO WIN THIS ELECTION? The way things are going, nobody is actually going to win. The only thing one can say is that one of the candidates is going to be more off-code that the other and lose.
Dr. R
Wednesday, April 21, 2004
liberation pornograpy- By Adam Hanft
Thought I would post this article written by a friend of mine (Adam Hanft). Comments can be added by visiting the forum.Dr. R
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Why are we surprised that our beleaguered and bludgeoned troops aren't being feted with smackeroos and hugs by grateful Iraqis? President Bush created the illusion that the Saddam-squeezed multitudes would thusly welcome us, a sloppy spilling of thanks, and he did so by cleverly leveraging an American leitmotif: liberation fantasy. Or, perhaps more accurately, liberation pornography.
This is a real and deep narrative in our collective unconscious, much of it upwelling out of World War II imagery; tow-headed American boys weepily greeted by the freed citizenry as captured by documentary footage and restaged by Hollywood string-pullers. Grinning, helmeted Kansas heads proudly swiveling out of tanks, sweaty and belonging, the anti-Dukakises.
We haven't seen that in a while, but we jones for it. And why not? The hero-rescuer is folkloric, erotic. It wasn't a possibility in Korea, where there were no grateful villages banished of totalitarian hegemony. As for Viet Nam, Ho was a national hero who had beat back the French, their charcuterie and brie rations, and their sputtery Citroens, a cat-whiskered icon who didn't brutalize his people.
Saddam was different, though. Surely he killed, maimed and imprisoned enough people to warrant the kind of street catharsis we saw when the Berlin wall vanished like an imploded baseball stadium grown too small and starved of skyboxes for those who manage today's corporate financial box scores. But other than the staged toppling of Saddam's giant statue, and a few random acts of celebration that reminded one of a clutch of drunken New Year's Eve revelers, there was no liberation pornography to be seen.
The fact that the demise of this undeniably monstrous regime hasn't created a massive Iraqi groundswell for Starbucks, the Gap and Wal*Mart is hard for us to understand. While few of us vote in our own elections -- and fewer all the time -- we still believe that having sweet old ladies from the League of Women Voters struggling to look up our names is a faith worth dying for. Or worth sending our sons and daughters to die for.
That dislike and distrust of America -- if not outright hatred -- is more powerful than a Jeffersonian hard-wired freedom synapse (which is what we have been schooled to believe), is a difficult construct for us. Portraying the current situation in black and white starkness, as the administration is doing, may arouse and stoke our liberation fantasies but will do nothing to create a stable, pro-American government in the region. We need a president who is able to articulate the nuances and complexities of the situation without pandering to our national Manichaeism. Has anybody seen Adlai Stevenson around?
Adam Hanft
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Why are we surprised that our beleaguered and bludgeoned troops aren't being feted with smackeroos and hugs by grateful Iraqis? President Bush created the illusion that the Saddam-squeezed multitudes would thusly welcome us, a sloppy spilling of thanks, and he did so by cleverly leveraging an American leitmotif: liberation fantasy. Or, perhaps more accurately, liberation pornography.
This is a real and deep narrative in our collective unconscious, much of it upwelling out of World War II imagery; tow-headed American boys weepily greeted by the freed citizenry as captured by documentary footage and restaged by Hollywood string-pullers. Grinning, helmeted Kansas heads proudly swiveling out of tanks, sweaty and belonging, the anti-Dukakises.
We haven't seen that in a while, but we jones for it. And why not? The hero-rescuer is folkloric, erotic. It wasn't a possibility in Korea, where there were no grateful villages banished of totalitarian hegemony. As for Viet Nam, Ho was a national hero who had beat back the French, their charcuterie and brie rations, and their sputtery Citroens, a cat-whiskered icon who didn't brutalize his people.
Saddam was different, though. Surely he killed, maimed and imprisoned enough people to warrant the kind of street catharsis we saw when the Berlin wall vanished like an imploded baseball stadium grown too small and starved of skyboxes for those who manage today's corporate financial box scores. But other than the staged toppling of Saddam's giant statue, and a few random acts of celebration that reminded one of a clutch of drunken New Year's Eve revelers, there was no liberation pornography to be seen.
The fact that the demise of this undeniably monstrous regime hasn't created a massive Iraqi groundswell for Starbucks, the Gap and Wal*Mart is hard for us to understand. While few of us vote in our own elections -- and fewer all the time -- we still believe that having sweet old ladies from the League of Women Voters struggling to look up our names is a faith worth dying for. Or worth sending our sons and daughters to die for.
That dislike and distrust of America -- if not outright hatred -- is more powerful than a Jeffersonian hard-wired freedom synapse (which is what we have been schooled to believe), is a difficult construct for us. Portraying the current situation in black and white starkness, as the administration is doing, may arouse and stoke our liberation fantasies but will do nothing to create a stable, pro-American government in the region. We need a president who is able to articulate the nuances and complexities of the situation without pandering to our national Manichaeism. Has anybody seen Adlai Stevenson around?
Adam Hanft
Monday, April 19, 2004
Toxic Texan Against Flip-flop
Branding the Candidates in 1 word
Volvo is safety, Ralf Lauren Privilege, what would be the one word you 'd use to brand Kerry or Bush?
Marketers always look for the Unique Selling Proposition (USP) as well as "product benefits". What do I get if I vote Kerry? More taxes? or Europeans stopping to hate us?What would I get if I voted Bush? more death in Iraq? or determination to finish the job? Bush and Kerry campaigns have to go down to ONE WORD, ONE BENEFIT, in order to be the chosen one
Volvo is safety, Ralf Lauren Privilege, what would be the one word you 'd use to brand Kerry or Bush?
Marketers always look for the Unique Selling Proposition (USP) as well as "product benefits". What do I get if I vote Kerry? More taxes? or Europeans stopping to hate us?What would I get if I voted Bush? more death in Iraq? or determination to finish the job? Bush and Kerry campaigns have to go down to ONE WORD, ONE BENEFIT, in order to be the chosen one
Thursday, April 08, 2004
Body language
President Bush resting his left arm on the lectern/podium is definitly off code.
Tuesday, April 06, 2004
The Next President- Dr. R's Poll
Bush or Kerry?
US citizen please vote where indicated
Rest of the World Please vote where indicated
The link is Here
US citizen please vote where indicated
Rest of the World Please vote where indicated
The link is Here
The "JFK" connection- Should Kerry Use it?
Senator Kerry shares the same initials as the late president. Could this be an important factor in the collective unconscious of Americans?
Everything about Kennedy was Archetypal, from his mistresses to his death. As with anything which displays an Archetypal dimension, it is not surprising that many politicians would want to be associated with the powerful "JFK" dimension. Clinton often showed a photograph of himself with JFK to whomever wanted to see it. But Kerry is a long way from resurrecting JFK. Kerry has to work hard to be associated with a strong identity, one that resonates with the American psyche. He only needs one word, one that fits the American code. Like when one thinks of Volvo, "safety" comes naturally to mind. The best word to be associated with right now is "Action". The winning candidate will have captured this dimension and closely associated it with his name. Of course this does not imply that other dimensions should be ignored, for example "thinking". I am not saying that the next president should be dumb. When I told Chrysler that they should be known for their "design", it did not imply that they could not be as good as other Japanese brands in terms of "quality". Design was the crucial dimension to put forward. So it's Ok to think for a candidate as long as he does not spend his time thinking and not taking action (if you are dead you can't go to the opera.) To that respect branding a Presidential candidate comes close to branding cars, shampoo or washing powder.
Everything about Kennedy was Archetypal, from his mistresses to his death. As with anything which displays an Archetypal dimension, it is not surprising that many politicians would want to be associated with the powerful "JFK" dimension. Clinton often showed a photograph of himself with JFK to whomever wanted to see it. But Kerry is a long way from resurrecting JFK. Kerry has to work hard to be associated with a strong identity, one that resonates with the American psyche. He only needs one word, one that fits the American code. Like when one thinks of Volvo, "safety" comes naturally to mind. The best word to be associated with right now is "Action". The winning candidate will have captured this dimension and closely associated it with his name. Of course this does not imply that other dimensions should be ignored, for example "thinking". I am not saying that the next president should be dumb. When I told Chrysler that they should be known for their "design", it did not imply that they could not be as good as other Japanese brands in terms of "quality". Design was the crucial dimension to put forward. So it's Ok to think for a candidate as long as he does not spend his time thinking and not taking action (if you are dead you can't go to the opera.) To that respect branding a Presidential candidate comes close to branding cars, shampoo or washing powder.
Thursday, April 01, 2004
Wake up Call: The Fallujah Massacre
The American Archetype is (unfortunately) well known of our enemies and friends. We are the worst friends and the best enemies.
Worst friends: ask the Kurds, the shah of Iran or even the South Vietnamese who could not board the last helicopter and leave Saigon.
Best enemy: We always announce the "secret" attack on CNN months in advance, with details and members.
I read today in the WSJ that "not a single one of the thousands of iraqis and jihadists detained for plotting or participating in attacks on coalition forces and civilians has so far been visibly punished" This is why our enemies "feel free to mutilate the bodies of dead americans in front of the world's TV cameras".We cannot tolerate so much thuggery. It is time to be aware of our Archetype, and the risks, in this new world, that it might be used against us. Time to switch to the Us-Marines' motto. "No better friend, no worse enemy."
You may join this discussion in the Archetyping the Presidency Forum
Worst friends: ask the Kurds, the shah of Iran or even the South Vietnamese who could not board the last helicopter and leave Saigon.
Best enemy: We always announce the "secret" attack on CNN months in advance, with details and members.
I read today in the WSJ that "not a single one of the thousands of iraqis and jihadists detained for plotting or participating in attacks on coalition forces and civilians has so far been visibly punished" This is why our enemies "feel free to mutilate the bodies of dead americans in front of the world's TV cameras".We cannot tolerate so much thuggery. It is time to be aware of our Archetype, and the risks, in this new world, that it might be used against us. Time to switch to the Us-Marines' motto. "No better friend, no worse enemy."
You may join this discussion in the Archetyping the Presidency Forum
