fnord!

i want to talk about fnords now. they're a really cool idea that i found on wikipedia. i'm not certain of the veracity of then concept but it's a great thought experiment anyway. a fnord is a word, but it's not just any word it's a special one that everyone can recognize. in theory the government designates which words are fnords and the populace is conditioned to ignore them when read but at the same time people get really uncomfortable when they see fnords. this ties in to their use, making people feel edgy all the time about news, by filling the papers with fnords, and encouraging people to buy more things, by forbidding their presence in ads.

of course this is all just a simple model for the way that manipulation of a populace really works. conspiracy theorists can postulate on the actual keywords that elicit these kinds of responses but in truth the situation is much more subtle. has anyone ever seen a personality cult, one of the most powerful forms of thought control, in it's beginnings? or do they only become recognizable after the fact? it's a pity that things aren't more clear cut.