Liberty, Liberally October 2023

From the Journal of Joshua Fryfogle

Liberty, Liberally Volume III - Issue X

October 2023

Media, Marketing &

Manipulation

Alaska

Just Let Go!

LYRICS BY JOSHUA FRYFOGLE No one wants to believe that they are the unwitting victims of subtle, subconscious manipulation. They want to believe that marketing is overt, and their decisions are all conscious, and that they act in accord with what they believe are their own perceptions.

None of us like the idea that our choices are not our own. We like the idea that we are free of mind. Our subjective experience of reality is the only perspective we can have, unless we employ empathy and see things through someone else’s eyes.

But our willful ignorance of how marketing really works is the reason why marketing works the way it does.

Knowledge of the subconscious effects of marketing is the only way to rise above those effects. When we ignore how it works on us, that’s how it works against us.

Modes of communication, like music or written words, have different effects on the individual. When the individual is made aware of how these mediums affect their perception, then the individual can be vigilant against any manipulation that might otherwise occur.

I’ve been involved in marketing, because of my own music and promotion, since I was 16 years old. Nearly 30 years later, with 20 years of running my own marketing business, I’ve learned a thing of two about how marketing really works.

I’ve also learned that most small business owners don’t understand how marketing really works, and most of those never will.

The personality type of the average small business owner is typically confident and sure of themselves. That’s what it takes to even want to start your own business general confidence in oneself.

These are the kind of people most affected by marketing manipulation, precisely because they are so damned confident in “their” perspective. Those who have doubts, who second-guess themselves, they tend to shy away from risk. It’s an example of the Dunning Kruger effect. But most small businesses fail in the first five years.

Almost all of them, really.

What you do today Was only for today It wasn’t meant to say That this is how you’ll stay

Businesses who succeed all understand how marketing actually works, and they’re better for it.

If a tree falls in the woods, and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

This classic thought experiment illustrates how our sensory perception of something is different from the thing itself. It begs the question, ‘what is sound but our perception of some other phenomenon?’

You’re a changing fortune A fluctuating soul You are new each day And it’s never getting old

Marketing is manipulative, but only because people don’t realize how it works. Just as a hypnotist can hypnotize an individual to behave in ways that the individual would never normally, marketing has the power to make individuals do things that they wouldn’t have otherwise. And like the hypnotized, they are largely unaware of their hypnotic state.

The most unnoticed.

effective

marketing

Just Let Go! Who you are tonight Is only for tonight It’s dark now you’re the light Tonight you’re burning bright

goes

When you do marketing that isn’t necessarily conscious, but rather subtle and subconscious, the people that receive that message will feel as if they originated the thought. Their awareness of the message will seem as if they realized it, through their own active perception of observable reality. Like they put it together, sussed it out.

Tomorrow’s coming soon Beneath this waning moon A butterfly’s cocoon Emerging from this womb

People who understand marketing know that while our conscious mind is indeed aware of certain data points, our subconscious mind is simultaneously taking in many more data points, too many of which to be conscious. The conscious mind is limited to the moment, and the subconscious mind works while we sleep, considering all of the information it received all along.

You’re a changing fortune A fluctuating soul You are new each day This isn’t getting old

We don’t like the idea that our thoughts are not our own. But we should all learn the truth about marketing, now that we are constantly being affected by social media.

Just Let Go!

Never before has marketing been more powerful than it is today. And never has the individual been more manipulated.

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From the Journal of Joshua Fryfogle

From the Journal of Joshua Fryfogle

Liberty, Liberally Volume III - Issue X

October 2023

Alaska

Use It Or Lose It My Songwriting Process

Don’t distrust the media. Free Press belongs to you. Instead, distrust corporations, who seek to monopolize media, cutting your voice out of the equation.

The founders imagined a future world where human innovation was amplified through individual liberty. They imagined a world where we would one day be able to truly gauge the consensus, and thereby be free to self-govern.

They imagined that one day we would all be able to contribute to a public discourse, and they gave us a constitutional guarantee recognizing that this freedom was ours to begin with.

This counterintuitive idea, that a Creator would inspire people with this liberty of conscience, this free will, was the most revolutionary idea in the history of humanity. Up until then, no government had been established with this otherwise mystical concept as its guiding force.

Instead, tyrants and kings ruled harshly over the masses. For millions of years we were trained to follow the leader. But the founders of our nation chose instead to lead us to leadership, and liberty. Instead of becoming a king, George Washington said we shouldn’t have a king.

However, at the time of its founding, our constitutional Republic had yet to realize the potential therein. We are currently beginning to realize the technological innovation necessary to allow all of humanity to communicate, and create a public record of that communication.

But historically we are only a few years removed from authoritarian/totalitarian types of governments. We simply aren’t used to being free. The challenge before us today is to make use of existing technology

wisely, adding it to the technology of the past to create a system that frees our communication.

However, it cannot be a centralized system, because centralization of power is the fundamental problem that philosophical liberalism seeks to solve. Still, we have yet to learn as a whole how to communicate as one. This is why our elected leaders are not doing as we want, which is the will of the people. There’s no record by which to check their actions, and compare it with the will of the people. When the founders established freedom of the press, they were establishing freedom of technology to be used for communication. The printing press at the time was still rather new, and still cutting edge. It enabled the first true form of mass communication. It was because of the printing press that the liberal revolution of society in Western Europe was first made manifest.

The founders knew that this technology was only the beginning, and that, as the creative spark of every individual was inspired by the exchange of information, it would only increase. They created a guarantee that individuals never be prohibited by government coercion or force from expressing themselves. They did this before it were really possible, because they could see it coming.

The time is now. Now is the time to contribute to the conversation, to contribute to the public discourse, that serves as a record of the will of the People.

Don’t distrust the media itself, but rather seek to understand its potential.

Make use of that power that is otherwise used against you.

When I’m working on a new song, it goes through this process. I start with, usually, a riff on the guitar. I’ve played a million riffs, but only a few have made it through the review process. My body yearns to hold the guitar, my fingers to find some something worth working. Then, when a chord progression or playing pattern emerges, I know.

The lyrical hook comes to me. Until then, I’ve only felt the feeling of the music, not yet articulated it. The words mustn’t just be catchy, or curious. Those things matter, so that they stand alone as poetry, but that’s not enough. They need to reveal the spirit of the music. This is the articulation of that feeling, for the first time.

I know when it works, and I begin to play it over and over. So much that it becomes second nature. When I can play it subconsciously, while my mind drifts to some other concern, that’s when it’s ready to be developed into a song.

Now the floodgates are open. Once the feeling becomes language, expressed as art, it’s just a matter of fully expressing the feeling, the theme of the song. While it took some time to find the first line, possibly weeks or months, the first verse will be finished in minutes. Time is irrelevant at this point. That initial feeling of distance from the song, that feeling that we all feel at the beginning of a challenging task, it’s all but gone. I can see the shape of the statue, and now the fun begins.

Now the melody starts to emerge. I know deep down that deep down in that pattern there’s a melody that compliments the guitar part. Like Michelangelo’s ‘David’ sculpture, the melody is already there, waiting for someone to remove the non-essential notes that obscure it. I use random words to fill in the blanks, but I allow myself to not overthink the words yet. Placeholder consonants around vowels of tone, the melody is slowly revealed to me.

Now I wait for a spark from the intellect.

Up until now in the process, I have minimized my intellect’s influence. I’ve intentionally prevented it from interfering with this intuitive process. But once the melody is found, in it’s simplest form, and the guitar part is second nature to my body, only then can I let my intellect get involved. Even then, it’s a passenger in the process. But now it speaks.

Words come in a flash. The song is already there, melody and chords, key and tempo, these things will vary but not significantly from this point. I’ve drilled them into my mind, my subconscious is completely in charge of them. It’s working on the song now, independent of my conscious mind, while I consciously concentrate on other things in life. Responsibilities, the mundane realities of life, I go about my business. And then...

This is when the song is already done, but I have to put the finishing touches on it. This is not how average people might think of songwriting, but that’s how it works for me. This is the easiest part, and I just about can’t stop it from happening.

It’s a compulsion to finish it now.

Now the song exists in an almost finished state. The average listener might think it’s finished, as I carefully share it with a small circle of friends. I hear their feedback, and listen to their tone of voice. I see their face and body language. But more than that, I feel the way the song feels when I share it. It always feels a little different than before, when it was my secret. It’s like I get to hear it as it truly is for the first time, when I finally share it with others.

I’m working on an album of songs now. Follow me on Facebook or subscribe to Liberty, Liberally to stay in the loop!

You can respond to what you’ve read, or write what matters to you.

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From the Journal of Joshua Fryfogle