In the original draft of my novel Tail of the Dragon I was extremely critical of public relations firms—especially those owned by foreign interests in the New York market. This of course did not sit well with the public relations branch of my publisher. During rewrites it was insisted upon that much of my harshest criticism be removed. As the publisher, they had a contractual right to do that even though I wasn’t crazy about it. Much of the public relations subplots of the novel did not make it into the final draft which didn’t hurt the story, but did not allow me to expose to the extent that I creatively wished to illuminating public relation firms as the propaganda arm of misinformation by exposing a vulnerable aspect of human nature—their ancient and very tribal need to travel in herds. I was tapping into my reader’s intellectual desire to rebel away from such a manner in my novel, but with that publisher, it wasn’t going to fly. Public relations professionals such as those who work to improve the image of government schools or run cover stories for corrupt politicians use a term called “social proof,” which Bill Whittle from PJTV covered during a recent segment. Social Proof, used to be called ‘Peer-pressure,’ but has since taken on a new, less harsh name. It is essentially a type of mob mentality that convinces people to go along with the herd. President Obama is really President Social Proof–he convinced a slew of voters that to question him was racist through public relations mechanisms utilizing social proof. Now, several voices are crying out that the Emperor…President…is wearing no clothes, and all that’s left to do is run the hollow people into the river. Watch Whittle’s explanation of that metaphor below.
Social proof is how the scam artists of public relations work their magic. They convince the masses that a truth is not a truth because a majority opinion does not believe such a thing. Once the masses invest into a belief public relations specialists can then direct social temperament to the molding of that belief—which is happening at virtually every level of endeavor in modern America. Public relations are so corrosive that it could easily be assumed that almost nothing we hear today we can believe—because most of it has been formed to expose social proof as the mechanism of mental acceptance.
Years ago I worked with a girl on a project whose father ran a large downtown Cincinnati public relations firm. This project involved WLW radio, major local politicians, and a wide range of very dynamic individuals. I attended several meetings at this downtown location and as things became friendlier, she came to my house. The more I came to know this young woman, the more I despised her. I held my opinions in check for the good of the project we were all working on, but quickly, my desire to work with such a corrupt—formless personality became too great. On an evening when I was set to go do a show on WLW during Willie’s time slot, I refused as the personalities involved had attempted to steer this project into the realm of social proof where a formless void of chaos was acting upon the development. I quickly learned during this experience why large companies become faceless, spineless organizations as public relation firms and lawyers take their products down a similar path and once there they often have too much time and money invested to back out—so they withdrawal from the creative process leaving everything to the parasites of public relations—which is about as unproductive as an endeavor as there is. They do nothing for a product except expose in consumers their need to satisfy a social proof which drives them to participate in the products represented by public relation firms.
My experience with this firm disgusted me, and it took me several years to get the bad taste out of my mouth, but I did learn a tremendous amount from them—which ended up in my book. But as my publisher stated, damning public relations firms would surely damn the sales of the book because without public relations—how could I hope to sell a book in this modern climate. My statements were the same as what they were all those years ago with the Cincinnati firm and WLW radio—I’d let honesty and the desire for a product that touched on the human desire for anti social proof carry the day. It doesn’t always work so well, but I feel better about the things I do when social proof is not a factor—but the curiosity of the masses are instead driven by individual desire. Those generated by public relation firms promoting social proof are essentially advocating falsification of reality.
One of the reasons I love Star Wars so much is that the love of that product is driven by individual freedom and recognition. Social proof actually worked against Star Wars in the 70s, the studios were rebelling against the film and if not for Alan Ladd Jr., 20th Century Fox would have pulled out of the deal. The industry did not want the product of Star Wars, but the internal desire of the human race did—which proves to me that such things are possible—and it gives me hope. Every time we go to the movies and see a preview for a new film—most of which will not live up to the hype, we are seeing attempts by public relations specialists to expose to the mass public a demand created by social proof to obtain strong opening weekend sales. Most films because they are completely social proof in their content fizzle out within two weeks of their box office take as the public turns away disappointed to their next hope for a successful movie going experience. In 2013 to 2014 the films which defy social proof are the Disney film Frozen, and Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. The product of those films exceeds the social proof of popular opinion and my excitement over those enterprises is because they overcome the falsification of social proof. Those two films are the two best-selling films which still have strong box office support several weeks after their opening weekend release which means that the content of those films defies social proof. People do not go see them because of peer pressure; they see them because the stories communicate to their individual natures. There is a BIG difference.
The Disney Company utilizes social proof in massive droves to attract people to their television, movie and amusement parks. But once there, Disney actually provides a good product and people come away generally happy and fulfilled on an individual level. Barack Obama uses social proof to hide his many crimes and scandals. This leaves society always feeling anxious and compelled to fill the void with conspiracy theories. But the behavior does not change because social proof creates a paralysis among the human species which states that action cannot be taken against injustice if the masses do not recognize the peril. This is why liberals, progressives, out-right communists and socialists have attempted to remove value from society using public relation firms to help them commit the deed, so that society would not have the intellectual tools to make such a determination. So long as society is paralyzed with shackles of lost value, they cannot act out against political crimes because social proof prevents them from acting.
Social proof advocated by public relations firms are one of the worst aspects of modern society. In my local school district of Lakota they are used to hide sex scandals from teachers against students, and advocate dangerously high tax rates among the property owners. In the current White House, Obama uses social proof to hide the content of his past and the crimes of his present—such as Benghazi, Fast and Furious, and the IRS scandal. Social proof does not hide the crime, but it does take away the means of holding conviction against it. Individually, most people will declare under their breath that something is wrong, but due to their ancient tendencies toward collectivism, will not stand by such convictions in the light of day as social proof prevents them from openly advocating such a thing. It is in this way that much evil is committed in broad daylight and suffering on an epic level is perpetuated. And all such things begin with public relation firms and ditzy braless bitches lacking a soul propped up by cowardly men who would rather sip wine from their high-heeled shoes than stand on the ground of conviction for what’s right and what’s wrong. They’d rather spin the facts with social proof and hide the crimes of existence behind that terrible form of peer pressure.
Rich Hoffman
The Gunfighter's Guide: 