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Cracking the Code: How to Win Hearts, Change Minds, and Restore America's Original Vision By Thom Hartmann ( Berrett-Koehler Publishers )
Release Date: 2008-09-01
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Product Description
Millions of working Americans talk, act, and vote as if their economic interests match those of the megawealthy, global corporations, and the politicians who do their bidding. How did this happen? According to Air America radio host Thom Hartmann, the apologists of the Right have become masters of the subtle and largely subconscious aspects of political communication. It's not an escalation in Iraq, it's a surge; it's not the inheritance tax, it's the death tax; it's not drilling for oil, it's exploring for energy. Conservatives didn't intuit the path to persuasive messaging; they learned these techniques. There is no reason why progressives can't learn them too. In Cracking the Code, Hartmann shows you how. Drawing on his background as a psychotherapist and advertising executive as well as a national radio host, he breaks down the structure for effective communication, sharing exercises and examples for practical application.
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 Thom Hartmann does it again ( willie411 )
I've read several of Mr. Hartmann's books and find him to be an incredibly knowledgable and well spoken (and written) man. His Air America Radio show is an invaluable source of all things in political history and political discourse. Cracking The Code is a must read for anyone who wants to study the art of Right Wing political "Newspeak", learn how to decipher its real meaning and become more persuasive for progressive causes. An invaluable book for those of us who love politics and want to win the debate.
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A must for debaters
Thom gets to the heart of putting your point across. He details how to put emotion into your presentation, how to cover the "filing" schemes for various personality types, and how to frame the question.
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One for the writer's toolbox ( cecilbothwell )
Tom Hartmann has developed a writing voice that is instructive and readable, fully reflective of his on-air capabilities. In this small volume he leads the reader step-by-step through the mechanics of persuasion with the immediate goal of improving rhetorical skill and the loftier goal of restoring American democracy.
Conservatives have hijacked our ship of state using the very tools that Hartmann describes here. They have reframed issues: pasting the old-guard press as "liberal" when it is, in fact, corporatist and substantively conservative; labeling their agenda of dictatorial control over women's bodies "pro-life"; playing the fear card over and over again to drive support for their militarism ... on and on. Astonishly, conservatives have succeeded in coupling "liberal" with big spending while running up the largest deficits in history under George W. Bush.
We need look no further to understand how well advertising works.
Hartmann carefully and neatly explains the difference in world-view between liberals and conservatives: the former believe in the basic goodness of humans and the community obligation of mutual support to permit individuals to achieve their highest potential (guided by prudence), while the latter believe in the basic evil of humans and the necessity of protecting everyone from foreign enemies and interior urges (guided by fear). The divergence rings remarkably true as I write, just five days before the 2008 presidential election. If there is one overwhelming difference between the two campaigns it is that John McCain is emphasizing fear while Barack Obama is stressing hope.
I highly commend this book to anyone who hopes to influence our political future, and note, as does Hartmann, that politics and democracy are not just for elections--they are the tools by which we fashion our common future.
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 Heart-Felt, Intelligent, Useful but Still Believes in Democratic Party ( cannotputbearintothisspace )
ON STRIKE UNTIL AMAZON STOPS DELETING FAVORABLE VOTES FROM FANS AND COUNTING NEGATIVE VOTES FROM THOSE WHO HATE THE POINT OF VIEW OF THE BOOK BEING REVIEWED MORE THAN THEY CARE ABOUT THE REVIEW.
I bought this book after receiving the author's words from Tom Atlee that then became part of the prefaces for Election 2008: Lipstick on the Pig (Substance of Governance; Legitimate Grievances; Candidates on the Issues; Balanced Budget 101; Call to Arms: Fund We Not Them; Annotated Bibliography). I then realized that this same author gave us Screwed: The Undeclared War Against the Middle Class - And What We Can Do about It (BK Currents (Paperback)).
The author, a self-described liberal, accomplishes roughly three things in this book:
1) Introduces neuro-linguistic programming and framing concepts as a means of understanding the political theater that passes for democracy today;
2) Seeks to differentiate the conservative "code" versus the liberal "code" and criticizes both--the conservative code for being false and unsustainable, the liberal code for failing to make the leap that connects and empowers We the People.
3) Goes on to discuss how to combine "code-aware" story-telling with the reassertion, recreation, and promulgation of the new liberal "brand."
I admire this book and recommend it highly. I could not give it the full five stars for two reasons: first, the author blindly accepts the Democratic Party as "good," not recognizing that they are actually "crime lite" in contrast to the Republican Party (and also the new face of Wall Street, with the Republicans designated to take the fall this time around in what has been a "fixed" and fraudulent electoral system since the 2000 fraud made pre-selection a given option); and second; he actually thinks Nancy Pelosi knows what she is doing--I think she is a doormat with no spine, so right off we have some cognitive dissonance. This case has been made by Peter Peterson in Running on Empty: How the Democratic and Republican Parties Are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About It so I will not belabor it. BOTH parties are evil and BOTH parties have betrayed the public trust.
Where the author really connected with me was toward the end, when he spoke about resurrecting "We the People" and the "brand" of all that is good about liberalism. If I set aside my disdain for both parties, what the author has to offer is a "code" for the new Transpartisan Alliance and organizations like Reuniting America and the World Index of Social and Environmental Responsibility. Please do look them up.
The book seeks to help good people communicate good ideas.
Here are highlights from my reading, all good:
+ Politics is a set of stories intended to arouse specific responses.
+ The liberal story is about interconnected world with inherently good people who need safety nets and community; the conservative story, as portrayed by the author, is about people being evil, fate being deterministic, and gated communities being the solution.
+ The author provides a truly impressive and subtle primer on neuro-linguistic programming, framing, and most impressive, how to help people transform "victim" stories into "learning" stories.
+ He places great stress on not seeking to stop or end or criticize bad status quo behaviors and policies, but instead trying to find fundamental connections (we all want American the Beautiful) and then seeking consensus on new positive ideas.
+ The author provides a very concise summary of Hobbes' Leviathan (war is a natural state) versus Locke's two treatises (and no mention of the social contract that I noticed), which points out that accumulated wealth is unnatural and impairs the broader community. I really enjoyed this.
+ He discusses the Jeffersonian draught of instruction on how a colony might secede, and I myself, speaking at the secessionists' conference in mid-November, make a note to look it up--if we cannot dismantle the two criminal parties, then secession is the only "legal" option for Vermont, the South, the Pacific Northwest, and so on.
+ The author draws a number of contrasts with story-telling examples, of "conservative" versus "liberal" framing:
- SECURITY: gated community versus all happy
- MORALITY: about what people do in private versus public welfare
- MONEY: "death tax" versus "rich kid tax"
- IRAQ: "just war" versus "unjust occupation"
The author resonates with me when he uses Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) and John F. Kennedy (JFK) as the examples of the liberal brand done right.
He points to an example of government doing the right thing in Germany: they ordered the banks to give very low cost loans to home-owners for buying solar power systems; and they ordered the power companies to buy the excess power at seven times the going rate. The outcome: they got 100,000 solar-powered homes GIVING BACK the equivalent of one new nuclear power plant (and the power company saved that investment).
In passing he slams Reagan for ending the non-profit status of health care, and Gingrich for teaching the Republicans how to code their way to victory.
The book ends with "democracy begins with you...you're it."
Books that I am reminded of and recommend along with this one:
The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World That Works for All
The Springboard: How Storytelling Ignites Action in Knowledge-Era Organizations (KMCI Press)
The World Cafe: Shaping Our Futures Through Conversations That Matter
Imagine: What America Could be in the 21st century
The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World
Society's Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People
Collective Intelligence: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace
I believe this book, as with the other books mentioned above, matters. However, I believe it is very important for all to reflect on the FACT that neither of the two candidates has addresses the substance of governance; neither has published a draft balanced budget; and regardless of who wins--with the fraud on both sides evening out--We the People all lose.
To end as the author suggests, with a personal story: I am an estranged moderate Republican, leaning toward Libertarian, who also respects all that the Green Party stands for, while yearning for every citizen to be an Independent. We the People are no more--for now. Corruption reigns in America--we are a "Cheating Culture" through and through.
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Learn the subliminal codes to communication - and stop being manipulated! ( ccanright )
This book from Thom Hartman is well written and very, very informative. It is filled with excellent examples of how we communicate on all levels. It clearly shows how the media and political spin pulls on our fears and emotions to manipulate us. I also found it very helpful in improving my communication with my children and wife. It is packed with information and can be read in a few hours. I highly recommend it It will set you free!
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