We have all been to parties that just don’t work: people and food and purpose come together but do not create a pleasing whole. Talk, circulate, a drink or two, leave, and sit on the night-filled porch glad for crickets and fireflies bouncing above the bushes.
As a nation we recently watched such a party to celebrate 250 years of being us. The big gala, the huge national awareness and pride, the music of the geography and growth and idealism – well, that didn’t happen. Instead we had division, cage fights, bragging, ruined ponds, canvas covered buildings, gilded statues, a sad county fair atmosphere – a big botched party more expensive, garish and embarrassing than inspiring.
I sat on the porch into the early morning hours of July 5 comforting my dog and my deep love for my country, and the remembrance of those men of the Enlightenment who set up our possibilities. Of that group, perhaps Benjamin Franklin would find some connections to 2026. He believed in science backed facts, experimentation, a universe governed by natural laws, the possibility of improvement for society as well as for the individual.
His advice to young men who wanted to improve: start to work at least ten minutes before anyone else; walk in the middle of the road, not the side; if you have a wagon or barrow, move with noise; whistle, if you know how. That is, let yourself be known, create an image in the minds of others. The 2026 version includes power suits, confident manners, books on self improvement, powerful acquaintances and addresses, wearing one hundred seventy-nine-dollar Florsheim shoes to cabinet meetings**, expensive cars and schools.
Perception management is the science of creating what sells in products, behavior, politics, beliefs and religion in such ways that the consumer does not question reasons for the choices.
In 1923 Walter Lippman pointed out the difference between “the picture in my head” and the outside world. The outside world is complicated, difficult: the picture in my head can be simple, pleasant, based on fewer facts, easier to follow because it is an easier version of the world.
I found a simple and loving example with my friends Pat and Mary, he a teacher, she a nurse. The had five children, the first three close together at the same time each parent was establishing a career. Evening hours could be frantic. Early on the kids could tell time, knew eight o’clock bedtime. On particularly busy evenings either parent might declare, “Tempus fugit” and set the clock ahead. The kids would see eight o’clock. Parents had quiet time.
Perception management at its best. But what happens in a competitive consumer world with politics now a product to be sold on the open market? Our outside worlds are bombarded with images, colors, testimonials, promises, laboratory testing, lies, public opinion. Truth is hard to distinguish and can seem less important than belief, and money flows by millions and billions.
With spin, color, celebrities, truth is not as interesting as pseudo-truth. We willingly give up our ability to distinguish one from the other. Pseudo-truth comes to us from influencers – “What did you learn in school today?” “I learned how to convince people to choose something they don’t really want and isn’t good for them.” “Good work.”
Good advertising techniques, and all the tricks AI presents as reality. I remember Oprah in The Color Purple: should I then buy her endorsed shoes or favorite food or anything else? Does a smiling Martha product mean I should buy any product?
The huge businesses of managing perceptions, of telling us what to see, believe and buy, display a capitalistic economic system gone too far. We monetize everything. The majority of people do not become richer or happier. We pay the price as management gives way to manipulation.
Maybe our precious country will never regain what we have lost and are losing. But we do have the possibility, the Constitution, and our most precious vote, stronger and more valuable now than ever. Slogans, insults, lies, distortions, name calling, and blaming manipulate rather than clarify. We must vote by what we know as true, not by what someone else presents as true. Vote we must.
**I love this fact: male members of Trump’s cabinet wear Florsheim shoes, at $179 because Trump does. On one hand, a perfect illustration of lickspittle: on the other hand, refreshing that they can deal in such an ordinary amount of money.