«

»

Jun
25

Burn A Book, Save A Library! An important Lesson in Reverse Psychology and Voter Responsibility

I came upon this story today about a backlash that began in Troy, MI and reverberated through all known channels of media, causing Americans, politicians and even major networks and political satirists to weigh in and speak vehemently out about the sanctity of books and public access to education and express their outrage at such an incomprehensible campaign to burn them.

This vigilante Book Burning group lit up the political scene in Troy in  response to a heavily-funded Tea Party misdirection-tactic that they felt was essentially serving to misguide voters about an issue on the ballot to save the public library by instead making it appear to be an unjustified or unworthy tax hike. Citizens heard the cry from the Tea Party to “Vote No!”  to a tax increase and were led to believe that a “No” vote was for the greater good and would keep the government out of our pockets but it occurred to almost no one that the crux of this particular issue had been omitted. To this smug misappropriation of facts, an uprising of activists launched their Book Burners scheme to actually save the  library in Troy, MI.

To garner taxpayer support to the tune of a .07% increase and rally against the Tea Party to save the local public library in advance of the impending vote,  this group plastered the city of Troy with fliers stating:

VOTE TO CLOSE TROY LIBRARY AUG 2nd, BOOK BURNING AUG 5th

In ludicrous numbers, citizens angrily banded together across a variety of social media to throttle this book burning group. A book burning??!??  It’s an outrage! such callous disregard for literary works and the very staple of education!

Little did they know, citizens in Troy and across the nation were reacting,  as we mere humans are apt to, with a knee-jerk,  emotionally-charged response before educating themselves on the specifics of a topic and were willingly herding themselves like uninformed cattle to the forefront of their ‘issue’. In this case, thank goodness these little sheep stayed true to form; the book burning group masterminded an epic reversal in thinking and rammed a healthy dose of their own medicine down the Tea Party’s throats.

The idea of tax hikes causes voters (and even those annoying non-voters) to instantly bristle and in this case, most people had no idea (nor took the time to learn) that the initiative on the ballot was for a nominal increase to keep the library and it’s community programs alive and wasn’t quite the tax hike the Tea Party campaign aimed to persuade them it was. The underlying beneficiary, namely the library, was barely mentioned by them, if at all.

By employing a brilliant marketing and psychological strategy, this savvy group of book lovers and proponents of supporting public access to education taught the Tea Party and the average American, at that,  an excellent tactical lesson by taking an if-you-can’t beat-join-’em attitude and successfully helped educate the community in spite of themselves in a most creative way as to what they were actually voting to achieve if, in fact, they voted ‘No’. See for yourself:

The result was, people were shocked and caught shame-faced when the truth was realized and sheepishly acknowledged their culpability in jumping on a tax-abolishing bandwagon, headed they knew not where , and admitted that they nearly voted for the demise of what, based on the social outcry by these same people, is evidently considered to be a vital liberty that the majority of Americans in Troy and beyond hold dear. Hopefully, they learned a lasting lesson.

The aim of article is not to assert any political affiliation and is not a Tea Party attack, per se; it is merely meant to highlight an interesting study in reverse psychology, congratulate an ingenious harnessing of social media to accomplish a desired goal and inform voters to the real issue at hand, expose the rampant political ploys to keep citizens in the dark and to lend the lesson of just how perilous it is to form an opinion without taking the time to see the big picture.  I realize not everyone had a teacher as amazing as Absegami High School’s Mr. Murray who taught me to know inside and out the opposing side of the issue I claimed to support and not just hand over my mind based on a heated emotional response.

Navigation of our liberties depends on critical and responsible thinking and the determination to wade through the muck of political-speak  and not become mesmerized and enamored by deliberately misleading politicos. I mean, come on, people, ’tis no secret that effective marketing  is at the heart of every political campaign and that their propaganda is in affect the shrewdest form of target-marketing designed  to give a glossy sheen to what may indeed be a wolf in sheep’s clothing and is  aimed solely to incite this exact type of emotional response, causing your to form an opinion based on little or no facts whatsoever.

Don’t be fooled! It is up to YOU to keep yourself informed (consider the source!), conduct yourself accordingly(know your mind!) and be prepared to assert an informed opinion based on what you believe, not what the TV, Facebook, mass media, me or Jon Stewart tells you.

As Ben Franklin wisely noted, “They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty nor security.”

The voters in Troy, MI narrowly escaped voting away the  liberty of public access to learning for the people of their city in exchange for a temporary and trivial amount of perceived financial security all because of an emotional manipulation by a another political party who just wants to win an election, usurp control of our common sense and paralyze us as a thinking, moving body of informed citizens so we fail to realize our power to effectively change the political landscape in our nation and reclaim our country for We The People.

We find ourselves in critical times in regards to liberty and responsible government; either stop bitching, be a responsible VOTER and get wise as to who is aiming to perpetuate your views and what they actually stand for before betting your freedoms on bullshit agendas or we’ll all end up mere cattle caught in the trap of elitist political party-herders thanks to your stupidity. I also believe that you should spare us your two cents on the issues until you are a registered and ACTIVE voter in a position to make a difference, but who cares what I think?

No comment yet

3 pings

  1. Emily says:

    Brilliant, Carol Ann, well said. Please continue in this vein!

  2. Ronny says:

    I love your fantastic web site. Just what I was searching for!
    Best regards, Ron

  3. roulette says:

    butwhocareswhatithink.com amazes me all the time

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

” onclick=”return fbs_click()” target=”_blank”>”Share