Tuesday, June 07, 2005

On The Mark -- Numbing and Dumbing

Silly me. I should have known by now that there was a reason why the Bush Administration got ants in its pants about the Newsweek report a few weeks ago stating that U.S. military personnel had flushed the Koran down a toilet. I had a hunch that they were using this report, which Newsweek quickly retracted, for purposes other than accusing Newsweek of instigating anti-American sentiment and riots in Muslim countries. One could call the insurgency in Iraq one big riot that Newsweek had nothing to do with, but that’s for another time.

The Bush Administration’s temper tantrum was all part of its very successful campaign of Numbing and Dumbing the general public, which I’ve reported on several times in the past. They knew a negative report (last week) was coming out about how the U.S. military had improperly handled the Koran, and what better way to deaden the impact of that report against the U.S. military than to re-direct the blame in advance of the report being released (and have Newsweek fold like a bad hand in Texas Hold ‘em)?

OK, the U.S. military did not flush the Koran, or that we know of, anyway. But they did piss on it. They did step on it. They did write on it and use it in a number of improper ways. But, hey, at least they didn’t flush it down the toilet, so it’s not so bad. Ho hum. We’ve heard all this before, so what’s the big deal?

Numb the “audience,” dumb the “audience.”

I really hate to admit it, but damn, these strategic communications guys are good.

2 comments:

Chandira said...

I wanted to know last night how urine 'splashes' on a Koran accidentally.

Makes you sick, doesn't it?

Jack Steiner said...

You know I don't support or advocate abusing the Koran or any holy book, but this is ridiculous.

And what I mean is that it is wrong to allow this to serve as a legitimate excuse for any kind of violence.

It is like they are trying to train us to accept violence as a response to anything that they do not like.