The New World Times

THE SMOKE SCREEN SYNDROME

By mgib

Planet Earth

People or institutions in power, when failing to achieve their goals or missions because of incompetence and/or excessive promises, feel the urgent need to demonstrate their power with substitute realizations. It's the smoke screen syndrome.

The best examples are found in the history of dictatorships. Not surprising. Most dictators get the power first through regular means (election, business..), but with unachievable promises. More than others they need and are affected by the syndrome. An endless source of impressive but questionable realizations. But the syndrome touches, with less obvious results, more honorable and clever powers.

Russian-American competition for the moon was a smoke screen for both. The former to hide the incapacity to make an economic system run, the latter an incapacity to make such a utopian system crash. Just to be fair I'll add an example from my "here": French nuclear trials in the Pacific were a substitute for what should have really brought power from the French government in its territories there; what natives really need.

Don't think it's so easy to make a good smoke screen. It must at least respect the three following golden rules:

First, the smoke screen must be related to your real goals. Alas, subordinate people are not always idiots. A dictator, who is supposed to lead his country in the way of the revolution, will make an impressive monument...dedicated to the revolution.
Second, and in my opinion the most important, manage events so that people gently shift from amused curiosity to strong interest, and then to uncontrolled need. The more people will be convinced that this is what they were waiting for, the more the substitution will appear to be perfect. Use the traditional means to achieve that. Large announcements, singing the praises of the project; some delays in it's realization, (we are awfully sorry) so people are more obsessed by what should come and doesn't tha n their former requests.
Third, as only you deserve the power, it has been a hard work very few could have withstood, of course. Publicly watch the wonderful result. The crowd must see in your (very tired) eyes the mixture of self-satisfaction and generosity.

Planet Mars

So, Mars world is finally opened!! (uh?? no!! this has nothing to do with what I said on earth, just an other topic). We have it at last!! Boy! I was really getting impatient; but now we have what we wanted, and what we paid for. Hmm..well, yes, can't remember, this was the main reason and promise for this new pricing policy, wasn't it? It was so clever to be welcomed there by COF staff!! poor guys! They had such a hard time to fix it so we didn't wait too long! They deserved to get some sleep, but no! they were there! to be sure everything was alright, obviously so happy, touching! When I think some lamers got the opportunity to bitch again. To harass them with other promises, but who cares!!!

Listen.. even the CFO was there!! Now, they are really clever. When you think even their CFO worked night and day on some computing problems to help when it's not really his job. What? of course he did, otherwise why do you think he was there?

But more than this wonderful realization, what really comforts me for the future is to understand they are professional enough so to never fall into the smoke screen syndrome.

See ya, guys, must go back to earth.