New Job: THOUGHT LEADER

* New Post, Inspiration and Eternity,  on Ether Capacious


 
This mornin' I said to Uncle Aloysius, "I been thinkin' on gettin' me a new job."

His haid din't even come around from behind the newspaper. "Mmm-huh."
  "Wonder how much travel this'll require?" I mumbled, scrollin' down the screen of the toy-pad.

The paper snappped down, "Youse gone enough. Any idea in yore haid oughta be 'bout keepin' yore feet on this floor."

"But, doan this sound like a grand job description, 'thought leader'?"

His face wrinkled up in consternation, "A what?"

"THOUGHT LEADER,"  I read to him from the screen.

"Never heard of one, but it doan sound like a job that goes anywhar'."

"Oh, sure it do, it goes to whar'ever the G-8 meets."

 "The G-8 conference will convene policy makers, thought leaders, food security stakeholders, and data experts to discuss the role of public, agriculturally-relevant data in increasing food security and to build a strategy to spur innovation by making agriculture data more accessible." 

Y'all, I reckon thas' whas' wrong wif' the world. "Leading thinkers" is one thang. But, a "thought leader," is a whole other  thang.   Most of us is familiar wif'a "group leader,"who simply keeps the group on task, insures the basic goals met, that no one person dominates, etc.  But a" thought leader" a nasty idea that aims to control yore behavior by controlling the direction of yore thinkin' based on behavioral science an' psychology.  It's part of the "consumer persuasion techniques" that the Obama campaign employed so well.

While sheeple have been readin' 50 Shades of Gray, the spetznaz read, Brainfluence: 100 Ways to Persuade and Convince Consumers with Neuromarketing.   Neuromarketing??  As in, git in yore haid an' change yore neurons marketing? Ya' mean, thought control?? Yep, thas' what I'm tawkin' 'bout.  

 It's more than clever marketing--it is intended to negate yore freedom to choose. It is meant to force a decision down one pathway. It doan rest wif' simply presenting the facts an' permitting you to think and choose.  This neuro-control turns ya' into an automaton wif' no thought freedom. These folks talk of "choice architecture" for "collective well-being." 

On some level we's all been victims of "choice architecture" wif schemes such as "opt out, not opt in". Ya know, those magazine subscriptions that keep renewing themselves unless YOU go the extra step to write in an cancel. It was not yore decision to renew but the "architecture" set ya' up fer a choice ya' did not intend.  

 Heah's the flavor: "In light of human limitations (thas' all us stupid citizens) I argue for policies that we call libertarian paternalism. Although the phrase sounds like an oxymoron, we contend that it is often possible to design policies, in both the public and private sector, that make people better off...without coercion."

I knows y'all is comforted by knowin' in some other reality the cabal  is lookin' after yore neurons. Reckon the big question now is, who does ya' want fer yore "thought leader?"