Before I begin – thanks to all of you who continued to work
during the stupidity known as the “Government Shutdown”. I’m pretty sure our
founding fathers intended there to be a check and balance system as a means to
preclude corruption of the precious freedoms that were earned through the
American Revolution. However, I doubt if they could have predicted the lunacy
that prevailed recently in DC.
Generally I have been an advocate of the theory that
marketing and PSYOP have a lot in common. However, today’s post is going to
take a contra view.
I have a variety of jobs that keep me busy. One of them is
working for a small international security consulting company. I wear a variety
of hats and sometimes have to wear my least favorite – marketing dude. This
week was such a time.
When considering our sales I think of the billing for the
current case and what do we need to do to keep this client and perhaps get more
and different kinds of cases from them. Overall, pretty straight forward.
I don’t need to be a psychic or witch to divine out
unintended results.
On the other hand when I ponder the world of MISO/PSYOP one
has to consider unintended effects as well as second and third level
consequences. While in our world the effects are confined to our customers and
employees of those customers who may move on to other companies and therefore
new prospects for us, the perspective is pretty limited.
MISO on the other hand is open to global consequences due to
the instant info world we live in today. The concept of the ‘strategic corporal’
where a squad leader’s interaction with a Village Elder can be employed by our
adversaries as fodder for YouTube or other media is real.
It takes a special kind of patience to calmly evaluate likely
second and third order effects as well as potential spillovers to other
theaters. Tomorrow’s MISO warrior will need this kind of insight on a daily
basis.
3 comments:
Brilliant blog from the few posts I read. Good onya. I'm a bit surprised by the lack of comments. When you get mentions from forbes, I sort of assume that your traffic will be high and comment sections filled with illiterate ignorance. Not the case here. Maybe it's because you're accustomed to writing in an objective manner...perhaps you should hold some seminars for today's media...
I'm curious about whether you ever interject more of your own opinion into your posts. You've obviously got real world experience that most of us (and by that I mean Americans who have not served in the military) have not, and particularly on things where you acknowledge a domestic applicability in addition to foreign, I'd be very interested to read more of your opinionative take rather than a recitation of facts and encouraging reader comments. Although I'm 29 and have lived on several continents, I find that I trust world views of those who have served more than most.
Regardless of whether you interject more opinion, thanks for the interesting posts, and thanks for your service.
@Tess. Thank you for your kind words. As you rightly point out, I try to stay objective, I attribute this to my training as an attorney and analyst.
You raise a valid point and I will give it some thought. Thanks for the input.
Sir - Tess raises a valid point that would benefit your blog - and the PSYOP Community at large.
Your blog site is the only visible discussion of our craft on the internet. At times, you do inject relevant questions and topics, but most often, your posts are anecdotal and filled with conjecture.
If you were to offer opinionated (and sometimes) argumentative posts, you might spark participation from the field and attract current practitioners to offer their perspectives.
Simply put - you might sway the mildly entertained underground to become an active auxiliary.
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