Dear Reader,

Before getting started, I want to let you know about the following upcoming Special Offers: FIRST CONTACT, book 1 of the Trilogy, FREE on May 3 & 4, and BETWEEN TWO WORLDS book 2, in a Goodreads Giveaway starting May 5 and ending May 26. Access both from my website, HERE.

So, have you ever found that some words or slogans, or even images loose their original impact over time? Take the word "awesome," a word originally used to describe something profound or monumental, something that inspired awe in the beholder. And now? Used so frequently for trivial things that its power has evaporated, as in, "Man, this cheeseburger is so awesome," or as an exclamation. "Awesome!" This is called semantic bleaching. Very commonplace in our everyday discourse and harmless in its way. There are other words, some that are "hot button" words that we will ignore here, but take the word "apple" for instance, that we see and hear every day, sometimes dozens or more times, often in advertising. Does that word, apple, bring to mind the fruit growing on a tree or even in a bin at the supermarket? Nope! I mean, Apple is so awesome!

Just think about it. That fruit has long been a thing, and more than just a smartphone. Remember Newton and gravity, and the "original sin" committed there in the garden. Got your Adams apple working? The "apple of my eye!" Oh dear, before we go any further down that "rabbit hole," let's use our apple to demonstrate something else. Repeat apple fifty times in a row it becomes rhythmic noise and neurons stop firing. Now we have a psychological phenomenon called Semantic Satiation. Again, lost meaning. No big deal, right? Yes, advertising.

Have you ever seen or heard an ad so often that it becomes pervasive...and annoying! Seen it navigating online in the sidebar, or as a popup or dropdown or following you around as you switch channels. Now, I'm not targeting any ad in particular, many are candidates, but the iconic image beckoning one to take a bite from the "tree of knowledge?" Clever! Burned into our consciousness. Such a simple thing so fraught with meaning...and yet so commonplace as to have no conscious meaning at all. But there are satiations or rather saturations besides advertising burned into our subconscious every day. What about those?

​Propaganda! Oh...forgot about that... Like ads, but different. Impact! And habituation. Sometimes the same phrases or perspectives repeated over and over, outwardly becoming white noise, as with advertising, but in other cases, the perspectives and phrases have an arousal effect or a numbing effect depending on the temperament of the consumer and the intentions of the creator. Is it inherently malicious? Well, maybe not all, but it is fundamentally a tool of mass persuasion designed to influence opinions, often by appealing to emotion rather than rational thought. Visual stimulus is especially effective. An angry face or a tearful one. Images that have been proven to trigger certain responses using neuroimaging as a testing tool. Sensitization or desensitization, depending on the desired effect. If you think you are just watching someone's artistic expression, oratorical brilliance, or literary flourish, you might want to consider the source, if that is even possible. And if it's not?

Where advertising may use mind sensitizing images of say, healthy vibrant people to sell hope to someone who is anything but healthy, still there may be choices spread across the marketplace, whereas propaganda comes down from above and offers only one choice or no choice, or ambiguity. With advertising, even with all that fast talking gibberish in the background as to all the ways the product can lead to gastrointestinal side effects, dry mouth or even death, we know the purpose is to sell the product, and the stimulus to activate the buy response. With propaganda it's a whole different ball game. The message is the product! Ludwig Wittgenstein, one of the most influential philosophers of the 20th century, referred to a "language-game," and argued that ideas don't need clarity for meaning. In other words the message may be tailored in such a way as to convey different messages to different consumers, all in the same message, thus with or without clarity, but with enough ambiguity to sow confusion, sensitization served up with desensitization.

The following from Thing FIRST CONTACT, Chapter 28. We are with Jason and Susan at the New England Aquarium, talking to Arkan who has taken up residence in the octopus.

“So Arkan, this is a thought game that the Arkinians play, is that correct?" “You can call it that.” “Please describe how you Arkinians play the thought game?” “It is as you have asked in your questions.” “Ahh, I see,” she said. “So you are in each other's thoughts and you can move each other's thoughts around in each other's minds, correct?” “In a manner of speaking.” “And sometimes you move parts of thoughts and sometimes whole thoughts, correct?” “Yes.” “And can many Arkinian minds move parts of thoughts and sometimes whole thoughts from their many minds into the mind of one Arkinian?” “Oh yes.” “And is that one way to play the thought game?” “Yes.” “And are there other ways to play the thought game?” “Of course.” “Can you describe the other ways?” “There are too many to describe.” “Can you describe two or three?” “One way is to take a fragment of a thought and send it to three other minds; another way is to take a whole thought and send it to one thousand minds; another way is to take three fragments of thought and one whole thought and send it to one million minds. Get the picture? Ha ha ha ha…”

Well, that was Arkan explaining how the Arkinians, having infused their precious consciousness into the Ark, managed to transcend their material selves on their stupendous journey across the cosmos. They played the Thought Game while their beings and their souls were somewhere else; Jason and Susan there with Arkan trying to unravel the cause of the Digital Catatonia, the mind virus that has overtaken humanity. But isn't it like Wittgenstein's language-game, and the games we play with ourselves, and the game the propogandist plays, not just with our minds, but with our emotions, using words to obfuscate meaning, and thoughts with imagery, purposefully playing with the synapses in our brains. Words with lost meaning, pressed into service in mind-bending ways, or to numb consciousness or subconscious... And devices weaving our thoughts into the web, the digital feedback loop...serving up what it thinks!

Wittgenstein argued that to have meaning, words do not need to convey clear thoughts, and that language as part of life, conveys its own reality... And I would add, as do images. So tell me, is it sunrise or sunset?

Contact me at: newsletter@kendallwilliamsauthor.com​

Find all the books and SPECIAL OFFERS at: kendallwilliamsauthor.com, and once again, FIRST CONTACT, book 1 of the Trilogy is FREE on May 3 & 4, and the Goodreads Giveaway for BETWEEN TWO WORLDS, book 2 starts May 5 and ends May 26.

Quote from Ludwig Wittgenstein, philosopher: "Language disguises thought... Philosophical problems arise when language goes on holiday".

Until next time, be well and safe journeys.

Sincerely,

Kendall Williams, Author

​kendallwilliamsauthor.com​

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