Want to save the economy? Stage a fake alien invasion.
A few of the conspiracy-friendly websites are touting that CNN is advocating or pushing this but actually, the comment comes from an interview with non other than Nobel prize winning economist Paul Krugman who merely points out that a period of national priority and manufacturing toward a goal brings stricken economies out of a slump. He gives a few examples that even if folks are working toward a false goal – such as moving dirt back and forth – the important thing is being employed and that a national or international crisis goal can galvanize economies to move forward. The US economy was in more than a terrible slump when World War Two created a boost in manufacturing.
Krugman mentions that if world leaders were to concoct a fake alien invasion, it could galvanize the economy and pull things in the right direction and that after the economy is saved the governments could announce the threat was no more (I would STRONGLY suggest they NOT tell people they lied about the aliens only that the threat had passed).
Krugman was just recounting a plot from a television program, he is not seriously advocating this strategy, although he does say that this sort of strategy would straighten the economy out in 18 months or so:
Here’s the transcript of his comment:
Think about World War II — that was actually negative social product spending and yet it brought us out… If we discovered that space aliens were planning to attack and we needed a massive build-up to counter the space alien threat, and inflation and budget deficits took secondary place to that, this slump would be over in 18 months. And then if we discovered, “whoops, we made a mistake,” we’d [still] be better… There was a Twilight Zone episode like this, in which scientists fake an alien threat in order to achieve world peace. Well, this time we need it to get some fiscal stimulus.
First, uhm, it’s NOT an episode of the Twilight Zone, rather, he’s referring to a classic episode of the television show Outer Limits titled The Architects of Fear in which a group of scientists stage a false alien invasion in an effort to foster world peace but the sentiment is there.
Some folks wrongly reference this as exactly the same sort of thing done by Ozymandias in the graphic novel The Watchmen by Alan Moore (well, actually, most folks who draw that parallel don’t actually know anything about the graphic novel and are referencing the film but they’re still not quite right in the comparison other than the conspiracy of false threat creation) but they are wrong as in that case it was not fear of an alien invasion but of punishment by a human who had evolved into a superbeing that galvanizes the world into peace and prosperity.
Honestly, I have more than often fantasized about just this sort of scenario as being a very good one for fostering world peace and it certainly would work very well toward getting the world economy moving forward. Unlike the film Wag the Dog where a fake war with Albania is cooked up in an effort to distract voters from a sex scandal, the alien invasion scenario would need to be done internationally which makes it unlikely to work . . . BUT . . . actually, it could be done.
The US, NATO, Russia, and China working together could pull it off – not the UN as there are too many loose ends but a very special project done by the members of the Security Council of the UN could do it. Pull in a few megarich and technologically apt business interests and you’re rolling and your Faux War of the Worlds could be in full swing quickly.
In terms of media, get some special effects houses to create some blasted terrain or a destroyed village where first contact occurs with human casualties and a captured spacecraft black box that is deciphered to the point to know the single first contact was a scout mission prior to an invasion and you’re good to go. Sure, it sounds like scifi but that’s okay, the story is familiar to the population and therefore at some level becomes believable.
Influence isn’t always about what is true or even what makes sense but about framing things that are believable. An important study on the use of the word “BECAUSE” in persuasive language as an aid in influence found that it isn’t so much the reason that matters but merely that a reason is posited. Readers here familiar with my comments on the work of Robert Cialdini and social influence are likely familiar with the Because Study.
Ellen Langer, a Harvard social psychologist, performed a fascinating experiment in 1977. She asked a favor of people waiting in line to use the library’s copy machine. When she asked, “Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the machine, because I’m in a rush?” 94 percent let her move ahead in line. When the request was phrased without those last five words, only 60 percent let her move ahead in line. Most fascinating of all, however, was that when she asked, “Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the machine because I have to make some copies?” 93 percent let her move ahead in line with no reason other than because. You should definitely use the word “because” in your persuasive efforts. I went into this and a whole slew of other studies as well as very exclusive material on the subject in detail in my recent seminar on Social Influence in Taipei (a number of folks have asked about purchasing DVDs of that very seminar but we still have to go through video to determine if there will be a product, so please be patient).
So, “we’re invading Iraq BECAUSE of the need to stop the use of weapons of mass destruction” becomes more persuasive than “we’re invading Iraq” alone would be regardless of whether or not the folks stating the line actually believe it to be true or not at the time.
“We need to massively rebuild the infrastructure” BECAUSE the “aliens are coming” could indeed work, especially if folks feel the economic and societal benefits of the increased activity immediately.
After all, some would argue that similar socio-economic motivators have been used in the past with things like “peasants and working class must be content with their lot as workers BECAUSE they will be rewarded in Heaven” and the like . . . or not, depending upon the color of your Kool Aid.
The alien invasion angle becomes even more persuasive in that a recent hubbub has been made over a NASA-associated paper that points out that the human impact on rapid climate change on Earth could lead to alien intervention, and not necessarily the good kind of first contact. See the actual paper at http://arxiv.org/abs/1104.4462 and some press misreading at http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/08/19/7419399-what-if-et-thinks-were-evil?fb_comment_id=fbc_10150257172195989_17559690_10150257265750989 and http://io9.com/5832666/could-global-warming-incite-alien-intervention and a whole lot of other places that went so far as to ridicule NASA’s involvement (actually, the scientist who wrote the piece is associated with NASA but this is NOT a NASA research project). The aggressive alien invasion possibility is only one of a number of possibilities played with in the paper. However, with tweaking the Secret Rulers of the World – apologies to Jon Ronson – could indeed wag the alien so to speak.
Also of interest on these lines is that the Discovery channel’s program Curiosity had an episode that asks the question as to whether or not humanity would be prepared for an alien invasion in which they consulted experts in military tactics, astrophysics, virology, and more for their take on different scenarios. I would think one could actually draw a map for an alien invasion preparation strategy with improvements in human living standards in mind . . . for instance, a giant push in medical research and improvements to fight off inevitable biological attacks could lead to innovations in cancer and disease research while infrastructure improvements to move trips and equipment could also improve industry and private transportation and even colonies and terraforming of Mars and a few choice moons as outposts or alternate human habitation might even one way ease population pressures on Terra (yes, the last part is wishful thinking but who knows). I imagine technology improvements could also be tremendous if positioned well.
Need some inspiration for what sort of alien invasion to stage?
Please keep in mind that this post is written with at least some tongue planted relatively firmly in cheek . . . some. Ooooh, did you see that Fnord?
All the best,
Brian
http://www.briandavidphillips.com
