a Super Ball Marketing production of the...

Original ARTWORK by
~Bobby Campbell
BUCKY VIRUS... "The Things to do are: the things that need doing, that you see need to be done, and that no one else seems to see need to be done. Then you will conceive your own way of doing that which needs to be done — that no one else has told you to do or how to do it. This will bring out the real you that often gets buried inside a character that has acquired a superficial array of behaviors induced or imposed by others on the individual." My Mom did this...
~Letter to 'Micheal' (16 February 1970) Micheal was a 10 year old boy who had inquired in a letter as to whether Fuller was a "doer" or a "thinker".

iT started innocently enough... I called iT Enchanted Marketing.

Introducing...

Actually, I simply came up with the construct, Lenette Patterson is the genius who first made it work. Usually, in academia the person who first makes a hypothesis works gets the glory... so the real glory is owed to the Morrisstown, TN weight-loss genius Lynette Patterson.

The techniques of my self-replicating-physical-brochure will be detailed in Pheonix, AZ at a mobile seminar that launches at 9:23 AM 4/18 from the San Marcos Crown Plaza Hotel. Shhh... They don't know I'm producing from seminar at their facility. You'll meet my mom and you better play nice with her. And if we get a title sponsor for $3500 you'll meet Jairek Robbins, the peek performance strategist for Robbins Research International.

Ben Mack is the marketing genius credited with having sold
a-quarter-billion-dollars in yo-yo's in two years.

He has received two national awards from the American Marketing
Association: an Effie for his strategy on YoMega Yo-Yos and the Edison
award for the launch of the Michael Jordan Cologne.

Three years ago Mack left the corporate life, as Senior Vice President
at BBDO, Director of Brand Strategy on Cingular where he was lead
strategist on a half-billion-dollar advertising budget.

Ben is author of a wide variety of books from his bestselling business
book Think Two Products Ahead, to the best selling book on fire eating
ever published, How To Eat Fire With Little or No Pain and the
conscious thriller, Poker Without Cards.

Currently, Ben Mack consults with and coaches established entrepreneurs
and business owners about how to maximize profitability by Thinking Two
Products Ahead.

Images:

Ben Mack Head Shot:
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii287/JMarkH_bucket/benmack.jpg

Ben Mack Eats Fire:
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii287/JMarkH_bucket/beneatsfire.jpg

Best,

Mark

We received 7 questions from folks joining The Millionaire Prep School...

1. Enchanteur - "THE BEST COACHING?"

Enchanteur, you will need to define best coaching for what? There are many great coaches available. However, You don't want tax advice from a relationship coach.

2. Bounama - "HOW I GET FREE EBOOKS WITH RESELL
RIGHTS? HOW TO GET THE BEST SUPPORT ONLINE FOR
WEBSITES DEVELOPING AND MAINTENANCE?"

Bounama, you are asking two questions...
Free eBooks with resale rights? If you aren't willing to pay for them, why should anybody be willing to pay you for them? Best support online for website development? The Faster Webmaster.

3. Eileen - "What is the least expensive and most effective way to
market if I am not technologically gifted? I don't know or honestly
want to spend my time learning how to create a web page ... but I
would like a simple way to use blogs, adwords, or whatever would
be effective without a lot of technical ability."

EILEEN, I love your question. Blogger.com is the easiest way.

4. Lee - "hello, Ben what is a good business to get in on today
market? Is it a real estate?"

Lee, I'm not in Real Estate so I can't tell you that. A good business is that which offers a service for which people are already lining up to buy.

5. Sarah - "Where do I start? What's next?"

Sarah, you are already started. http://SupersizeMyList.com is a solid program.

6. Fiona - "What I can sell on line?"

Fiona, just about anything.

7. Matthew - "How do I learn to harness the power of persuasion in 30 days or less?"

MATTHEW, great question. Please see http://SubliminalPersuasionBook.com

Finger Ballet...
I remember seeing this on The Tonight Show Live




I've got eyes for you...




I was in Hat$ Off working with these guys...




Shameless self-promotion...




Why Bill Hicks is perhaps the most influential comedian
of the 20th Century


This guy TAUGHT HIMSELF HOW TO SING BACKWARDS

is this any good?



it's not a How To, but a state of the Union.

Ender, WE need a better HOW TO than FREEBookWorthReading.com.

Lt. Kaffee is going to try
and work a little magic here.



He'll try a little misdirection.
Astonishing stories of rituals.



Dazzle you with official-sounding
terms like "Code Red".



He may even try to cut
into a few officers.



He has no evidence,
but it'll be entertaining.



But in the end, all this magic
will not obscure the fact...

gar.

Fellow IM Lovers,

Please type Ken McArthur a love-note on his blog...

==> http://BeTheLegend.com/ken

Ken embarrassed me by having 6 folks 
call me a "genius." Well played Ken. 
I love him, too. Now, I'd like YOUR HELP
getting him back and call him PAPPA BEAR!  
Ken is a big lovable BEAR.  

Please leave your note here...

==> http://BeTheLegend.com/ken

BEN MACK:
How you really think I'm doin'
with Ken?
         
ROSS GOLDBERG:
You kidding? He loves you.

BEN MACK:
You don't think I'm kissing
his ass or anything, do you?

ROSS GOLDBERG:
You're telling him what he wants
to hear. That ain't the same
thing as kissing his ass.

BEN MACK:
Yeah, I mean, I was at JV ALERT.
I loved it. I'm not lyin' to the
guy.

ROSS GOLDBERG:
No. That's why
it ain't ass-kissin'.

BEN MACK:
What you're doin' is genuine,
and he knows it.

ROSS GOLDBERG:
I like you, Ben.
Always have. Always will.
[ SNAPS FINGER & VANISHES ]

BRANDING & LOVE are synonymous.

Ken McArthur through me...
a Love FEST and I want to send some scrumptious LOVE with some delicious words Ken's way... Here's a transcription from the party:

[ BEGIN TRANSCRIPT ]
The-- These aren't my clothes ! ! !

==> http://BeTheLegend.com/ken

[ can you hear KEN SINGING... ]

A little bitty tear let me down Spoilin' my act as a clown I was all made up not to frown But a little bitty tear let me down

==> http://BeTheLegend.com/ken

A little bitty tear let me down Spoilin' my act as a clown Ross Goldberg, where are you? Come here. Come on, boy. Get in here. You get in here now. Get in there. Go on.

[ SONG On Radio ]

...you said you were leavin' tomorrow... That today was our last day I said there'd be no sorrow That I'd laugh when you walked away [ HORN SOUNDING ] A little bitty tear let me down Spoiled my act as a clown...

==> http://BeTheLegend.com/ken

I had it made up not to make a frown But a little bitty tear let me down Good mornin',
Ken. Hey, Ross Goldberg. Heather Vale, Warren Whitlock, & Donna Fox. I love you!

==> http://BeTheLegend.com/ken

especially...
when Ken's selling my three...

...when Ken McArthur is selling my...
==> My 3 most-recent books!



Who wrote This... ?

the theatre of the mind
is riveting...


FREE ==> BONUS
w/ purchase of TINAG

why's she just watching?

My greatest honor last year was working with the fine folks at ASU. What most folks heard, when I told them what I was working on was...

why are the BIG stars so often white? Oh, the thinks you can think... And Left! Think of Left! And think about BEFT. Why is it that Beft always goes to the left? And why is it so many things go to the Right? You can think about that until Saturday night. Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try.

Good to know you, Everette Freeman, Dwight O' Neill & Marshall Thurber.

Everette, in what ways might i...

what's your DyVal in an attention Economy?

Kuhn's approach to the history and philosophy of science has been described as focusing on conceptual issues: what sorts of ideas were thinkable at a particular time? What sorts of intellectual options and strategies were available to people during a given period? What types of lexicons and terminology were known and employed during certain epochs? Stressing the importance of not attributing modern modes of thought to historical actors, Kuhn's book argues that the evolution of scientific theory does not emerge from the straightforward accumulation of facts, but rather from a set of changing intellectual circumstances and possibilities. Such an approach is largely commensurate with the general historical school of non-linear history. He's talking about how evolution affects Network Science.

we need to start with the most basic question...

William Edwards Deming (October 14, 1900–December 20, 1993) was an American statistician, college professor, author, lecturer, and consultant. Deming is widely credited with improving production in the United States during World War II, although he is perhaps best known for his work in Japan. There, from 1950 onward he taught top management how to improve design (and thus service), product quality, testing and sales (the last through global markets)^[1]analysis of variance (ANOVA) and hypothesis testing. Deming made a significant contribution to Japan becoming renowned for producing innovative high-quality products and becoming an economic power. He's regarded as having had more impact upon Japanese manufacturing and business^[2] through various methods, including the application of statistical methods such as than any other individual not of Japanese heritage. Despite being considered something of a hero in Japan, he was only beginning to win widespread recognition in the U.S. when he died.

Here's artifact #1 of my proven track record in member generated quality fan content...

I'd like you to raise money for GENI.

Last book like this we raised money for The Bill Hicks Foundation For Wildlife.

please click on the phrase "Google Alerts" and set yourself up with appropriate alerts for Deming. May I help?

I'm not the warm fuzzy coach. I'm the you are going to get it done kind of branding consultant because I'm too tired of seeing my clients not achieve their goals.

Despite what others say, this is my master work so far...

Readers,

For those seeking to create and sustain practical change... Applied influence is a must. Scientific evidence now exists on how, when, and why people say yes. That's really what we're seeking, right? We want more yeses in our lives.

Cialdini's six universal principles of influence...

1) Reciprocation:. Give before you ask to receive.

People are more compliant with requests from those who have given something, anything, even the gesture of a gift. For example, American Disabled Veterans organization, mailed out a donations request to its list with an 18% success rate; and, when they split tested with "personalized" address stickers--they nearly doubled their success rate to 35%

2) Commitment/Consistency:. Get them to state their behavior.

Are you the type of person who likes to own the best books on effectiveness? If you say yes to me and then 5 minutes later I ask you to buy Cialdini's book, you are more likely to say yes then if I just tried to sell you his book without asking about what you are like.

3) Authority:. Tell people what to do.

You should buy Cialdini's books at the links below. To watch how I elicit an audience to tell me I'm "damn amazing" please click here to watch.

4) Social Validation:. Tell people "everybody else else isdoing it".

Especially when everybody else includes authority figures, or members of their tribe. For example, door to door collecting for charities while carrying a list of neighbors who had contributed, ==> The longer the list, the higher the incidence of contribution.

5) Scarcity:. Tell them supplies are running out.

Bad weather conditions in Australia, reported to create a shortage of Australian beef, actually doubled the regular demand. People want what they can't have. And, many like to brag they have what is difficult to get.

6) Liking/Friendship:. Be friendly.

People prefer to buy from those they know, like and trust.

Robert B. Cialdini professes Psychology at Arizona State University. His books have been published in at least twelve languages.


Get yours now!




This next book is less expensive than most home-study courses...



Supplies are running out!

i c u. I see you.

hi

4, 2b, c. 0, icu

hi, again

Thank you for shopping by.
Your attention is APPRECIATED.

I'm just about to put on some
Twilight Tea.

This isn't the famous Bucky Challenge ad.

Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.

Dr. Seuss, The Lorax
US author & illustrator (1904 - 1991)

Now, i don't know how to tell you this... but....



you know this, right?

It's about a girl.

I grew-up in L.A...

I'm better now.
Thank you for asking.

I'm a magician.

Here's the deal...
I've had seven heart attacks,
all imagined.

I was deeply unhappy 
but I didn't know it,
cause I was happy all
the time.

I never figured out the riddle...
"How Daddy is doing."

It's a riddle too tough for me?
- I know it.                   
"Sing Doo Wah Diddy?"

That's the mystery
of the ages!?

PANELREVIEW062303.WAV
KZZXLQERDEG.UGR

I sat up nights
working on that. But I forgive you.There's one thing I need to know.Did you do this?
Did I do this? How did this happen?

There are only two things
in my life I will never forget...

One is that
there is someone for everyone.

Even if you need a pickax, a compass,
and night goggles to find them.

And the other...
is tonight, when I learned
that romance does exist
deep in the heart of L.A.

Thank you and good night. 
I'll be here all week.singing...



There she was just a-walkin down the street...

Singin, do-wah diddy-diddy down diddy-do

Snappin her fingers and shufflin her feet,
Singin, do-wah diddy-diddy down diddy-do
She looked good, looked good
She looked fine, looked fine
She looked good, she looked fine
And I nearly lost my mind

Before I knew it she was walkin next to me.
Singin, do-wah diddy-diddy down diddy-do
Holdin my hand just as natural as can be,
Singin, do-wah diddy-diddy down diddy-do
We walked on, walked on
To my door, my door
We walked on to my door,
Then we kissed a little more

Wo-o-o-oh, I knew we were falling in love, Yes I did, and so I told her all the things That Id been dreamin of Now were toget her nearly every single day, Singin, do-wah diddy-diddy down diddy-do Were so happy and that how were gonna stay, Singin, do-wah diddy-diddy down diddy-do Im hers, Im hers Shes mine, shes mine Im hers, shes mine, Wedding bells are gonna chime

Wo-o-o-oh, I knew we were falling in love,Yes I did, and so I told her all the things That Id been dreamin of

Now were togther nearly every single day Singin, do-wah diddy-diddy down diddy-do Were so happy and that how were gonna stay
Singin, do-wah diddy-diddy down diddy-do Im hers, Im hers Shes mine, shes mine Im hers, shes mine, Wedding bells are gonna chime

Singin, do-wah diddy-diddy down diddy-do Do-wah diddy-diddy down diddy-do Do-wah diddy-diddy down diddy-do

Once again, I was watching the fucking news, and it really threw me off. It depressed everyone, it's so scary watching the news, how they built it all out of proportion, like Iraq was ever, or could ever possibly, under any stretch of the imagination be a threat to us-whatsoever. But-watching the news, you never would have got that idea.

Remember how it started,
they kept talking about 'the Elite Republican Guard'
in these hushed tones like these guys were the bogeymen or something. Yeah, we're doing well now, but we have yet to face-THE ELITE REPUBLICAN GUARD. Like these guys were twelve feet tall, desert warriors. KRRASH. NEVER LOST A BATTLE! KRRASH. WE SHIT BULLETS! Yeah, well, after two months of continuous carpet bombings and not one reaction at all from them, they became simply, 'the Republican Guard.' Not nearly as elite as we may have led you to believe. And after another month of bombing, they went from 'the Elite Republican Guard' to 'the Republican Guard' to 'the Republicans made this shit up about there being guards out there'. We hope you enjoyed your fireworks show. It was so pretty, and it took our mind off of domestic issues! The Persian Gulf Distraction.

This was made over 10 years ago, and it is still relevant today.

"Don't make the mainstream wrong."
--Marshall Thurber

"They say I'm old-fashioned, and live in the past, but sometimes I think progress progresses too fast! ... They say I'm a fool to oppose things like these, but I'm going to continue to speak for the trees!"
--The Lorax

"The majority of men meet with failure because of their lack of persistence in creating new plans to take the place of those which fail."
--Napoleon Hill

"We are in an age that assumes the narrowing trends of specialization to be logical, natural, and desirable. Consequently, society expects all earnestly responsible communication to be crisply brief. . . . In the meantime, humanity has been deprived of comprehensive understanding. Specialization has bred feelings of isolation, futility, and confusion in individuals. It has also resulted in the individual's leaving responsibility for thinking and social action to others. Specialization breeds biases that ultimately aggregate as international and ideological discord, which, in turn, leads to war."
--R. Buckminster Fuller

"How can you attract diversity when you expect people to be like you?" --Masrhall Thurber

FRINGE migrates into EDGE migrates into REALM OF THE COOL migrates into THE NEXT BIG THING migrates into SOCIAL CONVENTION.

now monetize.

your goal is money,
right?

you need a teacher
who makes sense to
you...

where you can hear
their ideas and know
how to make money

however, you may need to pay for access... especially if you don't have a working selling-system of your own.

when you teach somebody...
what are you really teaching

you need a media plan

Congratulations, you're in show business.

this is what i do for a living

i construct beautiful intellectual tent shows

the theater of the mind

may i suggest trying on Prometheus in order to reach a broader audience?

...on our side.

i wanted to be heard above the
Noise…

“Whoever gets the media first, and holds it, wins.”
--Kurt Vonnegut

TEACHER SEEKS PUPIL
Must have an earnest desire to save the world. Apply in person.

“The fundamental components of ideas act just like genes, competing for brain space the same way organisms vie for breathing space…Memetics promises marketers a more scientific way to reach consumers.”
-John Hoult
Fast Company
July 2000

I've put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant, and that's the only way of insuring one's immortality.
--James Joyce

Free Association:
Bill "Che" Hicks On Revolutionary Comedy
==> click the above link please.

“A poet is a beggar with pride.”
--Idries Shaw

“An Artist is a poet with a business plan.”
--Ben Mack

Because of the circumstances in which I traveled, first as an art student and later as an ad man, I came into close contact with corporations, mass media, and advertising of all sorts. I watched friends from art school succeeded and floundered.

I began to realize that there were things that were almost as important to me as becoming a famous writer or making a significant contribution to advertising: I wanted to be of service.

How does one actually carry out a work of social service? How can I unite my endeavors with the needs of society?

First, I wanted to ensure I wasn’t a drain on society. From a modicum of success in advertising I knew that money wouldn’t buy me happiness. From a lack of success in art I knew that poverty didn’t provide me with happiness either.

I wanted to shed my fear and live in light. I came to the realization that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. We have a choice, right now, between fear and love.

The proponents of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors and buy guns, close yourself off; the warriors of love, instead, see all of us as one. As one, there is no such thing as death, and life is a lucid dream in which we play the imaginations of ourselves.

Loving for no reason is a revolutionary act. That’s what I get when I read Jesus, to love for the sake of loving because love is metaphysical gravity. If as a society we ever organize ourselves around love we will live in a profoundly different world.

For this task of organization, as for all revolutionary tasks, fundamentally it is the individual who is needed. The revolution does not, as some claim, standardize the collective will and the collective initiative. On the contrary, it liberates one's individual talent. What the revolution does is orient that talent. And our task now is to orient the creative abilities of all entertainment professionals toward the tasks of social welfare.

We must begin to erase our old concepts. We should not go to the people and say, `Here we are. We come to give you the wisdom of our presence, to teach you our science, to show you your errors, your lack of culture, your ignorance of elementary things.' We should go instead with an inquiring mind and a humble spirit. However, we should never be so humble as to tolerate their intolerance. Instead, we should hold them accountable, truly accountable to what they say they stand for. In many instances in America, this is the words of Jesus. If that be their choice, then ask them to demonstrate these words in action. If there choice be otherwise, let them demonstrate the good in those words.

Later we will realize many times how mistaken we were in concepts that were so familiar they became part of us and were an automatic part of our thinking. Often we need to change our concepts, not only the general concepts, the social or philosophical ones, but also sometimes our concepts of entertainment and attention economy.

We shall see that ignorance should not be treated as it is in big-city schools. We shall see that the educator has to be a farmer also and plant new ideas and sow, by example, the desire to consume new notions, to diversify the nutritional structure which is so limited, so poor.

If we intend to make creative work a daily, dynamic source of all our happiness, then we have goals towards which to work.

I think one of the saddest aspects of our time is the total destruction in peoples’ awareness of all that goes with a conscious sense of the beautiful.

Modern mass culture, aimed at the 'consumer', a civilization of prosthetics, is crippling people’s souls, setting up barriers between man and the crucial questions of his existence, his consciousness of himself as a spiritual being."

But the artist cannot be deaf to the call of truth; it alone defines his creative will, organizes it, thus enabling him to pass on his faith to others. An artist who has no faith is like a painter who has been born blind.

The greatest truth I’ve met in this universe is sustainability. Just about every artist I know dreams of being wealthy. Many business people I meet dream of being artists.

I dream of being happy. Many of my daydreams have lasted me weeks at a time.
Here’s to dreaming. Thank you for playing along in my dream. We become the stories we tell ourselves. Let’s help each other tell ourselves better stories.

Ben Mack

Irresponsibility is part of the pleasure of all art; it is the part the schools cannot recognize.
James Joyce

In 2004, 99.9% of complaints about TV, other than the Super Bowl, came from one source--Meidaweek December, 2004

”The truth is, the majority of people are very reasonable. They don’t write letters when something offends them on TV. ‘Cause reasonable people know that IT’S JUST FUCKIN’ TELEVISION! And not only that, reasonable people HAVE A LIFE!”–Bill Hicks 1993


Bill Hicks
Happy 43rd Birthday

December 16, 1961, Bill Hicks was born; His words live on.


“It's a bit like John Lennon, it's like someone who, just when it looked like they were happiest and a slower, more productive creative period was about to happen, gee, the whole thing just went away.”--Jay Leno

“It's like God called his child home and told him to come on in, it's time to play, you can have the best time, you can be who you want to be, right here and now, forever. There's no censorship in heaven.”-- Thea Vidale

“Bill had a lack of concern. He wasn't concerned with what the audience thought, who would boo him, he wasn't concerned with how it would affect his business, he just said what he wanted to say.”-- Allan Havey

I blew through this mentor...

Content vs. Context

"How did that happen..."
vs.
"Why did that happen..."

Recency
PrimAcy
Emotional content

statically indeterminant

I'm communicating...
stay away, don't speak literally
among other warm sentiments
love and distance

...the Great Common-Denominator.

For Network Science, the GREAT common denominator is people

If you can predict with accuracy you must have a pretty good theory.
--Marshall Thurber

By what method?
Perhaps, you simply have the system rigged.
--Ben Mack

Network Science is a profound idea that I am honored to serve. Please let me know how I may best be of service.

In Savage Girl, Alex depicts a branding scheme called "Paradessence" where you identify the product's inherent paradox. This is very similar to ideas you were expressing around DyVal, however, this is an unusual source because it is a Science Fiction novel with a bizarre volcanic surprise, and the marketing material is spot on!

While Devil's Playground is largely about Amish teens choosing or not choosing to comeinto the church, you expressed interest in the role of women in maintaining a culture, and this DVD explains that very well with young women discussing how there are different expectations of them...

This next media is on memetics. The benefit of this book is understanding how groups of people use different languages while at different phases of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and also details how Maslow said the shape is not a closed-ended pyramid...


Please let me know how else I may help.

With gratitude,

Ben

On August 23rd we do the
Be The Legend Webinar with
Ken McArthur
during the intros, Ken and I announce
we're launching a product together
in a month.

PRESS RELEASE

Be The Legend program is about selling
the next JV Alert

xxx

On September 23rd we begin the 6-in-7
product launch formula for Magick Lessons.

Ben & Dave report live from the field
about going to meet a spoon bender

we're on a quest for Real Magick

xxx

to be revealed...

The Academy of Magickal Arts
presents

Magick Lessons
by Ben Mack & Rachna Jain
$2300 eBook
(hire Rachna Jain to create
Rachna gets credit for having
written a $997 eBook)

$23 quest-drive

doors open September 30

xxx

need 7-day media plan here
Scott Paton to draft

CREATIVE BRIEF:
Emotional tone: Quest, Heros journey, Escape to With Mountain, ASSUMPTIVE
Rational Benefit: Magick Lessons is the one BREAKTHROUGH academy of distance learning that teaches real magick to muggles.

xxx
Around October 1st...

BONUS VIDEO ARRIVES of Ben & Dave going to a Spoon Bending professional
with the "How to make a sellable product in 72 hours or less"
(each buyer has the resale rights to this video)

xxx

October 2nd classes begin
1) Basic Spells & Spoon Bending
Ben is a non-believer. He doesn't
believe people really bend spoons
with their mind. Nor does Dave Lakhani,
but they both respect the power of The Force.

Thursday call Synergy
Friday call Business Alchemy with Jeffrey Edwards.
Saturday call Your First Journey
Sunday call Q&A

xxx
Around October 6th...

BONUS VIDEO ARRIVES of Dave at JV Alert

xxx
October 9th class resumes

2) Protection from the Dark Arts
If you don't know who Edward Bernays is then you aren't familiar with
the most powerful magickian of the 20th Century. Some argue Hitler
was the most powerful of the Dark Lords, others argue Carl Rove but
in this special report you will see that Edwards Bernays is Lord Voldermont.

Thursday call Fire & Brimstone with a famous preacher, then analysis w/DL
Friday call Positioning by Ben Mack & Dave Lakhani

OCTOBER 11TH --> 10-day trial ends here <--

Saturday call Edward Bernays & The Seven Deadly Spins

MAIL DVDs

Sunday call Workbook construction with Rachna Jain

xxx
Around October 15th...

DVD course ARRIVES

xxx
October 16th class resumes

3) Levitations

Thursday call Modeling
Friday call How to sell enlightenment
Saturday call Backwards engineering the breakthrough...
The 7 Habbits of Highly Effective People by Stephen J. Covey
Sunday call In what ways are you creative
bonus expert call "How to make a Guru with Morgann Bryant, Ben's mom

xxx
October 23rd class resumes

4) Astral Projection & Flight

Thursday call The Light At The End of the Funnel
Friday call My First Funnel with Tellman Knudson
Saturday call Applied Propaganda
Sunday call Completion rituals with Joseph Longshore III
you get the DVDs of Think Two Sales Ahead, if you ordered them

xxx

OCTOBER 30th Halloween Show
stars TBD, we sell the package with
participants as the affiliates where
they drive people to the call through
their affiliate link

xxx


AKS

Landing page graphics swiped
swiped from The Ma.gic Castle
be prepared for Cease and disist
order (have press release ready
and revised landing page pimping
the publicity)

plan on having more of what we have
to plan

My background in consumer research and advertising has taught me how commercial enterprises propagate their ideas. More importantly, I’ve learned language and methodologies that allow me to analyze and model communication objectives and measure the efficacy of their tactics. I would like to apply this experience to an understanding of best-practices for counter-commercial ideas.

I’m fascinated by the survival tactics of counter commercial ideas.

How does a challenging idea make it through a gatekeeper? What are the common conditions for an increased incidence of challenging ideas to pass through gatekeepers? How does an idea gain support and broad consideration?

I’m curious to what extent historical analyses retain relevance with personal publishing and the Internet.

Personal publishing is accelerating specialized communications. A study of brand subversion will require the creation of a taxonomy differentiating personally published Brand Parodies from old-school phrases like Brand Vandalizing and Billboard Appropriation.

The Internet has facilitated communities and instantaneous communications, diminishing a perceived need for physical gathering spaces to forward ideas. However, relying on the Internet as the primary dissemination for counter-cultural ideas may exclude a broader audience and hinder the objectives of social activists.

Professionally, I hope to further this investigation and articulate my findings in usable ways. Counter-commercial mass media is often heavy on criticism and light on actionable ideas that are expected to have substantive or sustainable results. In business, case studies of best practices are commonplace and easily accessible to the masses. Social activism and business are quickly becoming allies on many ecological issues and these are beginning to become well documented. There are fewer case studies on transformative social activism and its messaging, and even fewer that are easily found or readable by a lay audience.

if you liked...



then you'll want to go deeper





and even deeper if you dare...

i have my Google Alerts set to track my first novel, Poker Without Cards. Coming soon in National Treasure 2.

Listen to archived shows is as
easy as 1, 2, 3...

1. To listen to past conference calls online, go to the following link.
   (click that link now)
   
   
2. Enter your information along with the bridge number (938678)
   and click listen to recording.
   
   
3. When you are logged in, click on play button to listen.

Erik Stafford's show is the most recent archive at the link
in step #1 above.

I'll only send this email out once.

I'm pimping my roommate's recent
interview here at this link I want you
to click...

Wes Unruh interview on NLP and
Meta Magickal Themas

http://thinktwoproductsahead.com/magick

...

-> end <-


{!firstname},

You've received an email that has
begun something like this with 68
people in the subject line.

Please reply to them with these
two points:

1) Don't put 68 people in your To: line
--> for security purposes, your friends
may not want to be associated with me

2) Quit shaming yourself

Most people are ashamed of selling.

May I suggest they ask themselves
what they are sending in this email?
are they promoting a friend that isn't
very good? i seriously don't get this

the tone is diminishing their effectiveness

If you are ashamed of what you are
selling please stop.

If you are promoting something healthy
then selling is self expression, sharing
why you are spreading the idea you are
championing

"Hey, of all the crap that's out there...
this is pretty damn good or maybe even
great."

I trust this this man (or woman) to
steer me right. That's real world
branding.

I'm Ben Mack. I help people learn
to make more money by better
understanding themselves and how
Cooperative Superselling works.

My primary business mentor is
Tellman Knudson.

I am active in 1 mastermind group
presently.

I'm a recovering advertising executive.
I was a corporate profiler. I know more
about the differences between Crest users,
those who brush their teeth with Crest, versus
Colgate users than is probably healthy.

I escaped Corporateland where I was
paid very well but I was miserable.
Truth is, I couldn't figure out how to
make myself happy within the games
that are played by the very successful
of that sport.

I was psychologically unemployable.
I admire many I left behind.

I see myself as a rhino.

I'm doing better now. Thank you for
asking.

8 months ago I invited the best online audio
artist i knew to come live with me while I went
to school and learned new media rhetoric
which i read as online persuasion... boy,
was i mistaken

The best online audio artist & producer
I know is Wes Unruh, aka Philip K. Nixon

Wes Unruh and I have been roommates
now for about 8 months and he's moving
in with his girlfriend, a brilliant media analyst
Shira Chess

Here is Wes' recent interview on NLP and
Meta-magick

http://thinktwoproductsahead.com/magick

Ben

p.s.
i'm moving to
Brattleboro, VT to live closer to my
mastermind partners.


Swipe file is where you copy and paste
from material that works... this isn't school
copy the best... but, don't be a dick. change it
up on them a tad so you are borrowing the
structure and not the words

1) Don't put 68 people in your To: line
--> for security purposes, your friends
may not want to be associated with me
or the communist party

2) Quit shaming yourself

A:.A

please hesitate before you swipe
the above lines because you may
manifest more energy than you expected
by using the word "communist" and the
same goes for the word Propaganda

Edward Bernays, the author of "Propaganda,"
defined a practioner of the profession of
"counsel on public relations" as a "practicing
social scientist" whose "competence is like that
of the industrial engineer, the management engineer,
or the investment counselor in their respective fields."

He states that to assist clients, public relations
counselors use and apply their understanding of
behavioral sciences such as anthropology,
history, social psychology, and sociology.

In Propaganda, his most important book, Bernays
argued that the scientific manipulation of public
opinion was necessary to overcome chaos and conflict
in society:

The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the
organized habits and opinions of the masses is an
important element in democratic society. Those who
manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute
an invisible government which is the true ruling
power of our country. ...We are governed, our minds
are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested,
largely by men we have never heard of. This is a
logical result of the way in which our democratic
society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings
must cooperate in this manner if they are to live
together as a smoothly functioning society. ...In
almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the
sphere of politics or business, in our social
conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated
by the relatively small number of persons...who
understand the mental processes and social patterns
of the masses.

It is they who pull the wires which control the
public mind.

Give us 6 minutes and we'll give you a solution...
click on image to play




If this solution is worth discussing...
You could invite your friends to this blog...
http://ThinkTwoProductsAhead.com/blog

Better yet...
copy and swipe from the email below

Swipe = take what works. Below is my
stodgy clever email that brought a few
folks here... but you know me. You know
my style. Take the email below and recreate
it for your style, in a way that will compell your
friends to watch the video above... but maybe
at a different link

BELOW are three links

1. http://BuckyNOW.com
2. http://GiveBuckyAchance.com
3. http://TellMankind.com

each link has a different
personality but they all drive
(redirect) folks directly to
the video, NOT MY BLOG.

"Pollution is nothing but the resources
we are not harvesting. We allow them
to disperse because we've been ignorant
of their value."
- R. Buckminster Fuller

Friend,

Can we discuss branding Bucky style?

In 1964 R. Buckminster Fuller
1st published his term "pattern
integrity."

Bucky's term -- "Pattern integrity
is when a pattern has integrity indepen-
dent of the medium by virtue of which
you have received the information that
it exists."

http://BuckyNOW.com

In Bucky's quote above...

If we replace the word ‘pattern’ with
the word ‘brand’ we create the statement:

"A brand has an integrity independent of the
medium by which you have received the in-
formation that it exists." - Fuller/Mack

http://GiveBuckyAchance.com

A brand is an integrity independent of the
product, product name, product logo,
advertisements, or any other accessory.

"Great nations are simply the operating
fronts of behind-the-scenes, vastly
ambitious individuals who had become
so effectively powerful because of their
ability to remain invisible while operating
behind the national scenery."
- R. Buckminster Fuller

Got Bucky?

Ben

switch-iT up...
http://TellMankind.com

3 links, 1 destination => 6 minute Bucky video

State of the Art Persuasion
This is how Microsoft promoted Halo II

Quick question...
Did "23911420" look real,
the PDF?

Yeah, it was about...
http://MyFirstClue.com

This is the strongest construct of
captology because it fully integrates
the recursive narrative structure
into the marketing creating invisible
sponsorship.

"Propaganda that looks like
propaganda is 3rd rate prop-
aganda."
-- Larry Beinhart
pg. 221 of Wag The Dog,
the book the Wall Street Journal
called one of the top 5 books on
public relations EVER written.

Let me say it as simply as I am
capable... I'm not that good at
making ARGs simple. A better
source is ARGN.com

Here's what I was hoping you
could help me spread the word
about...

NiN (Nine Inch Nails) is using
an ARG (Alternate Reality Game),
to launch their next album...
(Think Halo II's commercial aka
ILoveBees or ILB)

NiN is doing a Rock & Roll Opera,
depicting a dystopian future just after
the United States has irradiated Iran
with a nuclear bomb. Bad U.S., no
doughnut.

The cipher video that allows you
to construct your "Pattern Recognition"
lens, was given out on flash drives
and given to inner-circle fans.

42 Entertainment is producing this
online marketing show... this is the new
version of the soap opera where media
is completely sponsored and hiding the
sponsorship, or the story, or something...
that's what makes it a game, specifically
poker.

"Poker is the game of wagering on in-
complete information. Cards are but one
means to a game of poker." -Mike Caro

Nine Inch Nails released several videos
that appeared to be unrelated, but they
actually are fragments from a larger
tapestry of meaning.

The video that ties everything together
was not released online... but put in the
hands of fans that had it first and they
uploaded it to video sources online.

The paying, inner-circle fans had it first.

Here's the kicker, at least 14 variations
of the video have been found. More to
come.

Here...
http://MyFirstClue.com

Thank you for your considerations.

Benjamin Garth Siddhartha Mack
http://ThinkTwoProductsAhead.com

"Observation of my life to date shows that the larger the number for
whom I work, the more positively effective I become. Thus, it is
obvious that if I work always and only for all humanity, I will be
optimally effective."
- R. Buckminster Fuller

BinkyBear.com ... GetForgiven ... Frequency23 ... Disinfo ... cDc ...
WoundedNinja ... Gar... GNN.tv ... Craptology.tv ... Company23

Can you see the fnords? Can you tell Heaven from Hell?

GetForgiven here.

blue skies from pain.

Liz Boswell,
How I wish, how I wish you were here.
We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year,
Running over the same old ground.
What have we found? The same old fears.
Wish you were here.

1. Harry Vardis' PISCES (Bonus Call) download click here for PDF
   
2. Bonus Calls plus 4 months of archived shows from The Magic Teleseminar featuring guests like Brad Antin, Matt Morris, Michael Morgan, Larry Benet, >>Kevin Hogan <<, Jodi Meehan and Leo Quinn...
3. 1. To listen to past conference calls online, go to the following link:
      http://freeconferencing.liveoffice.com/free-conferencing-recording.html
   2. Enter your information along with the bridge number and click listen to recording.
   3. When you are logged in, click on play button (see image below) to listen.
      

I'm just figuring this stuff out. I made an aweful mistake
yesterday: I sent an email out with only one link. Yeah,
that's what Tellman has been coaching me to do, to send
emails out with one simple point and only one link...
but not a blank email where the one link is an unsubscribe.

1. One promotion a week
2. Start each email with a Bucky quote
3. Maximum of 3 emails a week
4. Every email must make money TODAY
5. Always send promotional emails to entire list, all 3 lists
   
6. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday will be optimal
   (unless something is ULTRA time sensitive)
7. Emails promoting TMT will have the same subject line:

• The Magic Teleseminar

This is part of my new image management.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Keira Kordowski
201-748-6017/kkordows@wiley.com


Think Two Products Ahead:
Secrets the Big Advertising Agencies Don’t Want You to Know and How to Use Them for Bigger Profits

By Ben Mack
Foreword by Mark Joyner, Afterword by Dave Lakhani

More than just a book on branding, THINK TWO PRODUCTS AHEAD: Secrets the Big Advertising Agencies Don’t Want You to Know and How to Use Them for Bigger Profits (Wiley; January 2007; $21.95; Cloth), is about what it takes to innovate and succeed in competitive markets. By coupling branding efforts with product innovation, marketers and managers can get far more bang for their marketing buck. Author, Ben Mack shows readers how to do just that, giving them the power to brand products and companies using the same tools as the big boys.

Ad giant BBDO subpoenaed Ben Mack in Jaunary, ’06 demanding to know if he was giving away their trade secrets. BBDO had no grounds to file suit against Mack, a long-time marketing and advertising insider, who is simply revealing that a single three-step branding scheme is employed by almost all the big advertisers.

Mack shows readers how they can brand themselves without the hundreds-of-thousands or millions of dollars brand development costs with the Big Advertising Agencies.

THINK TWO PRODUCTS AHEAD is a common-sense approach to marketing that empowers readers to define and develop their own brands with the same techniques and tools of the big players- but without the big cost. Mack has smuggled out the constructs that work regardless of the size of your business, from SOHO to multi-national corporations.

Mack also shows how the best and most effective branding happens when companies don’t just plan ahead, but plan two products ahead, using branding to leverage past products and strengths. Plus, THINK TWO PRODUCTS AHEAD also includes insider information on what makes branding fail, the five basic marketing positions, framing a product for bigger profits, connecting with the consumer, and deciding which marketing ideas to act on.

• Mack breaks down the identical branding schemes of virtually every big ad agency. While each ad agency has a different name for their branding scheme, with different labels and pictures, they all use the same three-step construct.

For marketers, managers, entrepreneurs, and executives, THINK TWO PRODUCTS AHEAD is a valuable resource in the effort to connect products and brands with consumers- without hiring a high-priced ad agency.

About the Author
Ben Mack is a sales and marketing expert and author. Winner of AMA’s Edison award and EFFIE, Mack is a career ad-man. He has worked on a number of high-profile ad campaigns like Cingular, Mitsubishi and Publix with such ad agencies as Deutsch, J. Walter Thompson, WONGDOODY, BBDO and WestWayne.

THINK TWO PRODUCTS AHEAD:
Secrets the Big Advertising Agencies Don’t Want You to Know
and How to Use Them for Bigger Profits
By Ben Mack
Wiley; January 2007
$21.95; 978-0-470-05576-6; Cloth

ATTENTION REVIEWERS
For the convenience of your readers, please include the following in your review: Wiley books are available at your local bookstore or by calling 1-800-225-5945. In Canada, call 1-800-567-4797.

For the latest on what’s happening at John Wiley & Sons, check out our
World Wide Web site at: http://www.wiley.com

Courage Mom: December 23, 4:30pm Eastern; replay at CourageMom.com

Morgonn Bryant, my mom, deserves for her story to be one of the six veteran ’07 finalist for Teleseminar Secrets (SM) Mega Challenge. Recently, she confided in me that she felt she didn’t have much to offer anymore.

I produced Courage Mom to demonstrate to her that many folks have plenty to learn from her. I emailed my modest list of 1500 subscribers. I created an event on MySpace.com/howardcampbell which led up to a “2nd Annual Holiday Jubilee”. I had 58 people on the call. My mom was thrilled. I was pleased with myself for giving my mom a really cool gift, what Mom described as: “the most beautiful present anybody has ever given me.” All was good…

Until the cop knocked on my door.

A listener called the cops on me thinking I was in the process of killing myself. Mom nearly drove off the 405 Freeway just south of LAX.

I may not deserve to win. I didn’t even sell anything. I was attempting to manifest a magical holiday gift for my mom. I felt more like the magician’s apprentice in Walt Disney’s Fantasia; the phantasmagorical mess I created took several days to calm down.

A Courage Mom listener mistook my online blogs about Kurt Vonnegut's Mother Night for the play/movie Night Mother, where Sissy Spacek tells her mom to have courage, right before she killed herself.

No other entry will have struck as many emotions as deeply as my entry for your consideration. From a hyperbolic perspective, this was an international incident. From my mom’s perspective, a glorious afternoon quickly became a nightmare. As for me, suffice it to say the call didn’t end as I had planned…

My mom is a courageous, creative and beautiful woman, a single parent who did the best she could raising my older sister and me. This talented woman:

➢ Was Anthony Robbins' 2nd publicist
➢ Got Luke & Laura on TV Guide (the first time ever for a Soap Opera to be featured on the cover),
➢ Doubled the attendees to Gordon Bizarre’s seminars


As a mom she has even more impressive credits. She got me…

➢ Into the pilot session of Bobbi DePorter’s Super Camp,
➢ Blessed by both the Dali Lama and the Karmapa, and
➢ My very own pony.

"Courage Mom" ==> I was referencing the scene in Wag The Dog where the soldier couldn't be home for Christmas and wanted his mom to know he was safe and for her to have a Merry Christmas.

Mom, I love you. That’s what this was all about.

To everyone else involved, I am sorry for the inconveniences I created. I am grateful for the love everybody demonstrated. Sometimes, I want to be loved a little less hard and from a safer distance.

Chris Titan,

Determination = Chris Titan.

Chris bought borderland sciences and has been
selling old Tesla secret reports ever since.

Chris, you an inspiration for your perseverance.

Gary Bremermann invited me to be interviewed!

Here's Gary's note to me (with sites you should check
out for next week's Easter Egg hunt with the Jolly
Grean Giant)...

Gary

GARY, YOU ARE MAKING IT HAPPEN.
I'll email proposed dates.

Mark Horn is a media maker. You can be a
media maker, too.

Mark is using http://freeconferencing.liveoffice.com
for free teleseminars and you can to. No contracts.
No fees. Zip. I don't know how they make their $$$.


Previous winners...
Barry C. McLawhorn is winner #5 of 12
Dr. Harlan Kilstein is winner #4 of 12
Warren Whitlock is winner #3 of 12  
Ronda Del Boccio is winner #2 of 12
Nick Maise is winner #1 of 12 

What do these folks win? Among other
bonuses, a free $1,997.00 home study
course of Think Two Sales Ahead.

Also, special coaching calls from legend
like David Deutsch.

Grand Prize winner gets 1 hour consultation
with Tellman Knudson.

:-)

Ask questions, post what you see, share your
knowledge.

My first business book comes out January 29, 2007
THINK TWO PRODUCTS AHEAD

"Creating loyalty beyond reason and moving from irreplaceable to irresistible is job #1 for all marketers today. Ben's book will help you get there."
Kevin Roberts, CEO
Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide

"Ben will teach you how to turn every first sale
into residual streams of income with products
and services that literally compel a 2nd, 3rd and
4th purchase. If you have a Millionaire Mind you've
just chosen to buy this book."
T. Harv Eker
Author of the New York Times #1 Best Seller
Secrets Of The Millionaire Mind

"Wow! It’s good…I could write 156 pages
of praise for your insight and writing ability,
but I have to tackle updating 356 pages of
Guerrilla Marketing so I kept it terse.”
Jay Levinson
Author of Guerrilla Marketing

"I call Ben whenever I have a question about branding and he makes everything clear and even easy and obvious. Think Two Products Ahead is like talking with Ben because every chapter gives you newfound clarity and you see how easy and profitable branding really should be."
David Doyle, Vice President, Program Development
Animal Planet

"For a guy like me who used to absolutely, positively hate branding, this book is a revelation. Finally, a clear-cut confessional from someone who has actually worked in the deep carpets with the guys and guyettes in the designer suits. But Ben generously goes beyond the Wizard of Oz exposé (that takes down the scam Madison Avenue and its provincial cousins have been running on businesses for years)... and tells you what's good about branding, and how you can cash in on it for your business. I mean exactly, step-by-step. If you are in business and you have anything to do with marketing, you need this book."
David Garfinkel, Author of Advertising Headlines That Make You Rich

Praise for Ben Mack’s previous book
POKER WITHOUT CARDS
"Ben Mack wrote a consciousness thriller, combining natural philosophy with storytelling—the effect is like taking acid, only you never come down."
-Robert Anton Wilson, Author of The Illuminatus! Trilogy

“As a result of this book, Ben will never work in advertising again. If you read it, neither will you. May this clever virus infect the mediaspace before it's too late."
-Douglas Rushkoff, Author of Coercion; Media Virus!

“Poker Without Cards reveals the hard-to-swallow truth that one cannot know reality until one understands memetics and poker. Is the world ready for such a revelation?”
Richard Brodie
Author of Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme
Computer programmer who wrote original MS Word

“Reader’s beware! Your perceptions will be changed and the adjustment period may be disorienting, but it is well worth the read. Poker Without Cards depicts Bennington College while I was there. Poker Without Cards evokes the magic we called college, the homes we called dorms and the tensions we called life. If you read one difficult book this year, make your way through this one--The journey is worth the effort.”
Justin Theroux, actor
Mulholland Drive/American Psycho/Charlie’s Angels

“There are ideas in Poker Without Cards corporations don't want you to read…Read this book!”
Michael Bonanno
The Yes Men

“Reads like a modern-day 1984…I think the world has found a new Orwell…I am certain it will be a big hit.”
Kirk Packwood
Memetic Magic

"Poker Without Cards pulls the circus tent back on persuasion and marketing. If you ever wanted to meet The Great Oz, read this book.”
Mark Joyner
Mind Control Marketing

“Ben Mack, Since you don't have the guts to be a homosexual, I'm glad that you are pissing off your parents by writing.”
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Cat’s Cradle/Slaughter House 5

John Reese breaks his silence with 2 pages
of record-straightening, sheer brilliance that
we are honored and better for his sharing...

http://www.copywritersboard.com/member-content/4238-captology-tv-vs-craptology-tv.html

Mr. Reese's comments are on page 2.

Why would I slam Mr. S so hard?
I'm mirroring the energy. Yes, and
I'm engaging issues first broken to
the Internet here...

The Ten-Million-Dollar Man

http://toxicbloging.blogspot.com/2006/11/ten-million-dollar-man.html

Darn,

It's T-4 days and they already have a winner...

First Buzzword Of 2007: Simplexity
by Sarah Mahoney, Wednesday, Dec 27, 2006 5:01 AM ET
HAS ALL THAT HOLIDAY COMPLEXITY convinced you we're finally over the simplicity thing? Not so fast.

Market researchers believe that 2007 will find consumers seeking out a new trend, which Robbie Blinkoff, managing partner of Context-Based Research Group, is calling simplexity.

I've charged communities with the greatest
intensity I know how, as peacefully as I can
be and still be effective

I've got some folks talking about me, most
saying I'm lacking clarity

I'm recreating the sculpture in Chapter 1 of Poker Without Cards

One of Kevin Wilke's students from 10-in-90 is one of the 3 finalists for
the grand prize, which includes among other things, a 1-hour consultation
with Tellman Knudson.

To prep for 2007, you should go either here:
http://TellmanKind.com

or here:
http://benmack.successuniversity.com/onechance.aspx

Kind of exciting,

Yes?

Hi.

When I ask, "What are you willing to make happen?" I'm talking
about right now! Joe Lonshore II gave me this glimpse, well, him
and Artemis.

Willing? Yes. You are manifesting your intentions all around you.
What you focus on expands. On what are you focusing?
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.
A:.A



The Structure of Magic
[What are you willing to make happen? (pt 1 of 3)]
By Ben Mack
Magic Castle Award Winning Magician,
Author: Poker Without Cards

Magic is the act of facilitating a phantasmagorical
experience, the acceptance of the world where natural
laws don’t have such a firm grasp on reality. I grew
up a junior member of The Magic Castle—If ever there
was a real Hogwartz, this was it. David Copperfield
lectured to our membership, Dai Vernon tutored us and
Diana Zimmerman managed us. The Magic Castle wasn’t
open to kids interested in magic. Instead, The Magic
Castle held biannual auditions and initiated those who
demonstrated proficiency of craft and potential for
expertise. The older a candidate was, the better they
had to be. It took me two tries to be accepted. Natural
aptitude was rarely enough to muster the goods necessary
for acceptance. Virtually every candidate had been
tutored. Lorenzo Clark was my mentor. I called him Larry.

Larry not only taught me sleight-of-hand, called prestidigitation, but he also taught me the psychology of perception. In order to create a sustainable illusion, one must have a commanding grasp of perception. A magician must transcend fooling their audience and enter the realm of trust where an audience grants you their willing suspension of disbelief.

Magic is not a thing or a physical act, but a state of mind that approaches the sublime but is more aptly referred to as phantasmagorical. Magic occurs at the intersection of a performer and an audience. There is intentionality to the perception. A stone that looks like an eagle is not magic, regardless of whether or not it is carved to represent the physical traits of an eagle. A sculpture maybe a catalyst to an altered state of mind, but I am reticent to call a sculpture magical. Some panoramas feel almost magical to me, but real magic is dynamic and ephemeral. Magic is the process of engineering an experience where reality emerges as it cannot be, and yet the audience is compelled to set aside their disbelief and flow with the experience as long as it lasts.

Creating an illusion entails tweaking our visual prejudices. We drop a coin, and it falls. We know this to be true; we have seen the force of gravity pull objects to Earth since before we had words to articulate the phenomena. What most non-perceptual psychologists DON’T recognize is the extent that our mind projects our expectations, our visual prejudices, onto our sight.
...
gar... continued at... Online Marketing Dump

Craptology.tv

Dear reader,

This is a post of my last email of this long-
weekend.

One reader asked if I could expand the
times listed for the Tuesday Magic Teleseminar.

At present, I write:

Magic Teleseminar...Learn magic every
Tuesday at 9pm Eastern / 6pm Pacific
Dial-In to the conference at 1(712) 432-3000
Enter your bridge number 938678

This reader lives in Arizona that is now off one
hour from Pacific time.

In Arizon the teleseminar now starts at 7pm.
I'd like to excerpt from my unpublished almanac
that was inspired by a question from Buckminster
Fuller: In what ways might we better ground folks
to the idea that they are on spaceship earth. So, I
created an interactive almanac. The interactivity
isn't well demonstrated here, but an essay is relevant...

Daylight Savings Time Explained

Daylight Saving Time, also called Summer Time,
is a system for uniformly advancing clocks, so as
to extend daylight hours during conventional waking
time.

Under legislation enacted in 1986, daylight saving
time in the USA:
--Begins at 2 a.m. on the first Sunday of April and
--Ends at 2 a.m. on the last Sunday of October.

Daylight Saving Time was first suggested in a
whimsical essay by Benjamin Franklin in 1784
entitled "Turkey vs. Eagle, McCauley is my Beagle."
It was first advocated seriously by William Willet
(1865-1915), in the pamphlet "Waste of Daylight" (1907).

During World War II, from Feb. 9, 1942, to Sept. 30, 1945,
clocks in the United States were kept continuously
advanced by two hours to conserve fuel by reducing
the need for artificial light.

The Uniform Time Act, enacted by Congress in 1966,
established a system of uniform daylight saving time
throughout the U.S. and its possessions.  The following
states/territories voted to keep standard time: Arizona,
Hawaii, Indiana (the eastern time zone portion),
Puerto Rico, The U.S. Virgin Islands and American Samoa.

To sign a petition to keep DST all the time, go to:
http://www.burtz.ch/idc/burtz/petition/petition.idc?
To help obliterate DST, go to: http://www.daylightsavingtime.com

Note: Added humor can be found when DST begins on
April 1, April Fools Day.  This is one of those rare
"obligation-free" holidays. No one expects you to
send flowers or blow your paycheck at a fancy
restaurant.


Another reader thought I must be the
most liberal man alive...Here's my response:
I can be conservative. It just depends
who you compare me against. You see,
in the last few days I've been swapping
emails with fellow readers and Bob W.
from Idaho says I'm the first Liberal
that's made sense to him. I told him I
imagined how he felt.

Bob W. was floored. I was by and far the most
liberal man he had ever spoken with.

Bob W., here's a brilliant man that makes me
appear very conservative...
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4775729603895673174&pr=goog-sl

Thank you all for emailing me. I'm sorry
if I haven't replied yet.

I've been making labels with pictures for
the 57 folks at Elite Training Camp that
invested in my products. Monday morning
I'll be send 57 priority mail envelopes.

On the outside of the envelope, near the
address label with a picture of our Bootcamp,
will be a 2" x 3" color label with pictures from
my video: The Pitch, Poker & The Public staring:
--Joel Bauer
--Howard Bloom
--Mike Caro
--Howard Campbell
--Jay Conrad Levinson

Each of the above men have written a seminal
book for their field...
--Joel Bauer, Hustle Hustle
--Howard Bloom, Global Brain
--Mike Caro, Body Language of Poker
--Howard Campbell, FreeBookWorthReading
--Jay Conrad Levinson, Guerrilla Marketing

Howard Bloom is a crowd favorite at video
festivals. Howard Bloom is credited for
making Joan Jett famous and worked with
Legends like Michael Jackson, Madonna
and John Cougar Mellencamp.

Inside the envelope will be a bright red or
orange DVD in a bright colored sleeve. On
the back of the sleeve is a label with an
art directed showboard/title for the video and to
the left of this image I wrote:
Give us 35 minutes and we'll
show you the matrix
P.T. Barnum Style.

Below the headline is the list of players,
as listed above.

Plus there is a third sticker that has me
blowing fire and in the fire is the word, "YES".

The studio manager at WestWayne made these
images for me. Why aren't I crediting his name?
Tim. But I can't remember his last name. My bad.

This packaging is designed to intice useage. That's
the lesson here. The experience begins before the
envelope is opened.

I've spent 12 hours making these three labels in the
last two days. Why? Because it is a way for me to send
my love to folks I'm about to spend a lot of timne with.

As I've been working on my product packaging, I've been
listening to the best audio product engineering I have ever,
ever heard on the audios of Jerry "Drhino" Clark's audio
The Magic of Influence. WOW! The content is condensed
brilliance made accessible. Man, it is good!!!

Back to my Priority Mail envelope. There's a welcome letter.
I give them what they ordered, and something extra, something
fun and short. I don't want to give away the surprise.

I'm out of my old stickers. I used to have thousands of
What Would Bill Hicks Say stickers. Folks seem to love
getting stickers.

While I've been home, I've been writing deeper
emails. I figure other entrepeneurs are working
on their projects and perhaps they have more time
than usual.

Yesterday's email yielded two folks willing to trade
transcribing for a set of audios. Yeah!!! The perfect
number of folks said yes. I had two slots and I got two
folks saying yes.

When I'm assemblying these kits is when I can make a
couple extras. If you want a kit I'll give it to you for the
same price I gave them at a steeply discounted bootcamp
price of $497. You get the audio of my seminar that I sold
here:
http://twinktwoahead.com

Just email me and we'll work out the details.

This Tuesday I hope you'll call in for our
weekly magic teleseminar where we'll learn
how Wes' MySpace work landed an art show
in California for a Kansas artist.

Come join us on Tuesday...
Magic Teleseminar...Learn magic every
Tuesday at 9pm Eastern / 6pm Pacific / 7pm Arizona
Dial-In to the conference at 1(712) 432-3000
Enter your bridge number 938678

Ben

Share these emails with friends. Please send them
to:
http://authorsbusinessplan.com

Dave Lakhani challenges whether or not The Secret is comprehensive.



Listen to the replay of Dave Lakhani's interview by clicking here. http://podcast.liveoffice.com/telcorecordings/0/938678/1061021.mp3

Also, Dave discusses the value of a grieving process as described in this book, here:

To listen to Michelle Chance and my call Tuesday night WARREN WHITLOCK...

We'll let you listen, but it won't be easy. First, here's an ad:



First, you must have your bridge # 938678.

PLEASE NOTE: after you enter your info, the top of the page has a confusing form asking for members to sign in...scroll down the page and you'll see the two recordings, then click on the play buttons. Thank you.

1. To listen past conference calls online, go to the following link:
   http://freeconferencing.liveoffice.com/free-conferencing-recording.html
2. Enter your information along with the bridge number and this logs you in and takes you to the page with the recordings...just scroll down and look on the left (please ignore the blanks asking for phone number here)
   
3. Click on play button > to listen

To get notices of all my events, please opt-in here at http://AuthorsBusinessPlan.com

Your wealth = your command of Magic.

Learn magic on Tuesday evening's $0 teleseminar...
9pm Eastern / 6pm Pacific
Dial-In at 1(712) 432-3000
Enter your bridge number 938678

Why do I type $0? Because spam filters will often block emails with the word "F.r.ee" and this post was originally an email sent to 3,000 folks who double-opted-in at http://AuthorsBusinessplan.com

Learning these tricks is part of becoming a more powerful magician. Are you ready to become a more powerful magician?

Past tele-seminar Magic Success...
Tuesday's tele-seminar will begin with a short celebration because our SEO work with coach Dave Navarro has paid off!!!

Future tele-seminar Magic Case Study...
Next, we'll briefly meet Wes Unruh who is Tellman's MySpace Chief Marketing Officer, and he'll tell you what to watch on MySpace for next week (he'll make Michelle Chance famous in 1 week)

Tuesday's tele-seminar Magic...
Warren's magic is his ability to work with authors on coordinating a best-seller blast,
and more importantly, teaching authors specific tactics on how to use their book to
make money.

Did you catch that? You won't get rich selling your book. You get rich using your book for
very specific business purposes.

Learn magic on Tuesday eveing...

MAGIC TELE-SEMINAR Tues.

9pm Eastern / 6pm Pacific

Dial-In at 1(712) 432-3000
Enter your bridge number 938678

You are really, really unlikely to get rich off of your book. Book publishers and book
retailers get rich selling your book. That's their job.

Your job is to use your book as a marketing tool, over one-hundred pages of fabulous
insights that subtley and not-so-subtely reinforce the benefits of doing business with you.

Learn more on Tuesday's tele-seminar...
MAGIC TELE-SEMINAR Tues. 9pm ET / 6pm Pacific
Dial-In at 1(712) 432-3000
Enter your bridge number 938678

All the infuriating ideas in this email come from me and should not be confused with my guests, co-hosts or friends. These are my ideas and my perspective. Here goes...

The only way alcohol is helping you make money is if you are selling it, taxing it or getting a client warmed up to close a deal.

Yes, I drink. I'm not saying drinking is bad. I am going to write about a marketing lesson you can learn from the marketing of "drugs and alcohol".

You've surely heard the phrase "drugs and alcohol". Scientifically, alcohol is a drug. So what's the benefit of saying "drugs and alcohol"?

"drugs and alcohol" = SEPARATION of alcohol FROM drugs

There are few people I enjoy discussing alcohol and marketing with than Warren Whitlock.

FOR BOTH OUR PROFITABILITY STOP READING NOW.

Wanna know why I'm nott wealthy yet? It's because I can't keep my mouth shut.

PART OF what I dig about Warren is that he lets me yap and he still does business with me.

Warren sees that what separates alcohol from drugs is a marketing campaign. Alcohol kills more people directly, or is a contributing factor to premature deaths, than all non-taxed drugs combined. What's the best way to identify a non-taxed drug? Our government calls them illegal, making them command premium prices and filling our streets with un-needed violence.

Am I going too fast for you to connect the dots?

Marketing of alcohol involves benefitial labeling.

Keeping alcohol separate from drugs is worth hundreds of millions of dollars a year to this multi-billion dollar a year enterprise.

Coors donates millions of dollars each year to anti-drug campaigns.

Coors saying they are involved in a war on drugs is like the Catholic church saying they're chasing pedaphiles. Coors is against "Other" drugs and the Catholic church is against "Other" pedophiles.

Neither company wants their own called a dirty word, but they invest millions promoting their dirty word.

These are not profitable ideas. You won't find these ideas explicitly discussed in my business
book, Think Two Products Ahead.

Tuesday night's seminar stars Warren Whitlock. Warren is teaching us how to get rich through
publishing.

Warren sees what I see... that separating alcohol from drugs is like separating what the White House press secretary says from calculated misinformation.

None dare call it treason. Legally I guess its not.

What I do know is that the game is rigged. And, if you aren't tweaking with their rigging then you are either part of their team or getting frustrated being broke.

Stop being frustrated and come learn how to make more money faster.

MAGIC TELE-SEMINAR Tues. 9pm E / 6pm Pacific
Dial-In at 1(712) 432-3000
Enter your bridge number 938678

You can call me crazy. However, you can't argue with the money I've made big businesses and
small and mid size ventures.

You need to know how words affect your profitability.

If your job was to sell a "regressive tax", what would be your first action? For me, it would be to change the name.

Did you know that "regressive tax", "flat tax" and "fair tax" all refer to the same taxation scheme?

Are you asleep or can you see the difference in these labels?

Learn these skills, learn to sell your own ideas and learn to swim.

MAGIC TELE-SEMINAR Tues. 9pm E / 6pm Pacific
Dial-In at 1(712) 432-3000
Enter your bridge number 938678

Every week I get irrate emails from my subscribers. Most times I simply unsubscribe them. One concerned soul apparently but my email address in a church newsletter so that I received several emails with large sections cut and pasted in each one, telling me exactly why the Bible tells me I'll burn for eternity in Hell.

Thank you for your concern.

My goal is to get you to take action. I'm please you are taking action. However, I don't enjoy that much heat in my the metaphors I ingest.

Indulge me while I turn up my CD player...

So, so you think you can tell Heaven from Hell,
blue skies from pain.
Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?
And did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?
How I wish, how I wish you were here.
We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year,
Running over the same old ground.
What have we found? The same old fears.
Wish you were here.
--Pink Floyd, Wish You were Here

Peace out,

Ben
http://www.greylodge.org/gpc/?p=558

Dear (your name),

Creating magic is manifesting a
sustainable metaphore.

This email is a think piece. If you
enjoy playing with ideas, you may
have fun with these ideas.

Please allow me to tell you a story...

Earlier this year, I worked with a
gentleman who sells plant nutrients.
He helps folks grow bigger tomatoes.

EVERYTHING he now prints, from brochures
to invoices, reinforces the notion that his
products allow you to grow bigger tomatoes.

He makes users of his product his hero because
they are growing really, really big tomatoes.

The Metaphor is that his product = bigger tomatoes.

The promise is that...

You use his product and YOU, (your NAME), grow
heroic size tomatoes.

This idea came to me this evening because I was
enjoying the conversation of an artist named
T. A. Thayer.

Thayer said, "The metaphor is the reality."

His notion inspired the branding lesson of this email...

Lesson: Your brand essence is your metaphore.

For a picture of a mask T.A. created, please look
here:

http://www.necmfa.com/PoetThayer.html

Thank you for consuming this think piece. Now,
think peace.

Ben

P.S. Pattern Integrity
"A pattern has an integrity independent of the
medium by virtue of which you have received
the information that it exists."
--R. Buckminster Fuller
Synergetics

If we replace the word "pattern" with the word
"brand," we create the statement: "A brand has
an integrity independent of the medium by
which you have received the information that
it exists." This is the essence of chapter one,
"What is a brand?" A brand has an integrity
independent of the product, product name,
product logo, advertisements, or any other
brand accessory.

BEN MACK here.

If you were sent here by a friend,
WELCOME
please go here to get my Author's
Business Plan and sign up
for special announcement emails...
http://authorsbusinessplan.com/

I'd like to give you a $197 prize...

However, I'm hesitant because I've
learned the hard way that when I
give something away for free, folks
don't value their gift.

146 folks paid $197 for a PDF
and we received only 2 requests for
refunds.

96 folks paid $97 for Think Two
Products Ahead and we had 6
requests for refunds.

You can read our guarantee here...
http://www.thinktwoproductsahead.com/index1.html

We gave 5 copies away for free
and two of the folks complained
about their $0 PDF.

Usually, the less people pay,
the less they appreciate what
they get. I'm hoping you can see
the value of a gift.

Wiley will be publishing Think
Two Products Ahead on January 29, 2006
just two days before my birthday on
January 31...

Wiley is not letting me sell my ebook
anymore. However, they didn't say
anything about me giving it away and
if you can keep a secret, I'd like you
to have an Advanced Readers Copy...

To seel the fabulous sales letter that
Michael Morgan wrote, to better
understand why folks paid $197,

please read this page...
http://www.thinktwoproductsahead.com/index1.html

So long as you're here, please take a
peek at the blog post about getting
paid $8 to write a blog.

Thank you for waiting...

Here's your copy of
Think Two Products Ahead.
http://www.thinktwoproductsahead.com/important.html
(Please note, the coaching was a limited
time only offer.)

I appreciate your considerations.

Warmly,

Ben
P.S. To buy my novel, please click here...



PLEASE DO NOT TRY TO
BUY THIS BOOK...

Yes, I'm also grateful you can read TWISP here...
http://sweeteasy.blogspot.com/2006/09/be-what-you-are.html

How did I find this reference to an unpublished work of mine? I use
Google Alerts: At Google.com, click on "more" then click on "even
more" and you'll see Google Alerts.

Get Paid $8 For Blogging Buzz

PayPerPost Pushes Ethics Envelope with Ad Dollars for Positive Write-Ups

By Mya Frazier

Published: October 29, 2006

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AdAge.com) -- Over the course of one month, Lynn Terry watched her PayPal account balloon to nearly $500 for simply blogging.
Product shilling
"It's the easiest money I've ever made," Ms. Terry said. But to earn it, she couldn't just write about her life as a single mother of two living in Tennessee. She had to essentially shill for advertisers, from Epson inkjet printers to the software product Camtasia.

In that month, Ms. Terry took 55 "opps" (opportunities) for an average of $8 each via the website PayPerPost.com, defined by its 30-year-old founder and CEO Ted Murphy as the "consumer-generated advertising network." By Ms. Terry's math, if she expanded to five active blogs and took the maximum three opps per day, her monthly take would jump to nearly $3,600, or $43,200 a year. "That's a full-time income," she added enthusiastically.

Granted, a full-time income isn't uncommon in the blogosphere, where plenty of bloggers aggregate eyeballs with daily musings on everything from politics to pets to how to make a living.

Content as advertising
But advertisers have until now taken a hands-off approach to blog content, buying mostly banner ads clearly distinguishable as advertising. What makes the PayPerPost's model different is the integration of the "ad" into the content of the blogs in a systematic, automated way.

A rundown of current opps includes one for BeerLiquors.com, which is offering bloggers $4 to write a minimum of 300 words on a "suck and blow" gelatin shot encased in a patented plastic tube that it says can "coddle those who are uncomfortable with the taste of alcohol." The blog has to link to its site, where a 12-pack can be ordered for $27.60.

It's not hard to imagine what a blogger, who might also be a MADD member with a few kids in college, would say. But a "Postie" (PayPerPost's term for its 6,000 bloggers) can't criticize the product, in this case. The tone required by the opp is neutral.

$3 million in venture capital
Mr. Murphy's outfit, based in Orlando, Fla., makes its money by paying an $5 fee per opp placed on the site, or a listing fee; the site makes 25% for every opp a blogger takes. Mr. Murphy declined to disclose revenues but said: "We are doing great," before laughing heartily. The company has raised $3 million in venture-capital funds.

Certainly PayPerPost is paving new ground, but the question is whether it is distinctly different from P&G paying a novelist to include references to its Cover Girl products or Coca-Cola paying "American Idol" to get Paula Abdul to sip from a Coke-branded cup during a show. Of course, it's done by everyday people. And then there's the thorny issue of disclosure.

"This could undermine the entire social fabric of social networks," said Patrick Rooney, president of Expand Communications, a word-of-mouth-marketing firm in Chicago, whose clients include Sony Ericsson and Sergeant's Pet Care Products. "While people are reading blogs, will they begin to question the truth about what is written?" Mr. Rooney plans to advise his clients against using PayPerPost. "Paying for reviews will certainly come back to bite you in the butt because it will get out that you did."

'Funny issue'
"It's kind of a funny issue," Ms. Terry said, before admitting she does not disclose every post and often will cloak her affiliate links. "You get a higher conversion rate," she said. "It just confuses people who are not familiar with it." (Some PayPerPost bloggers are using the abbreviation PPP to tip off readers.)

"We are betting on the ethics and morals of the bloggers themselves," Mr. Murphy said. "If someone really hates a product, to make $5, will they say something positive? It really comes down to the blogger being honest with its audience."

Sensitive to the criticism on disclosure, though, he's developed DisclosurePolicy.org to give bloggers an easy tool to integrate a disclosure policy into their blogs. A blue graphic or "badge" with a check box and the words "I disclose" can be downloaded that links to a disclosure policy generated easily on the site, such as: "This blog is a sponsored blog created or supported by a company, organization or group of organizations."

Ironically, to get the 6,000 bloggers on PayPerPost to use it, Mr. Murphy plans on paying $10 to each to adopt it.

Robert Cialdini is interviewed by Bob Sommers.
http://www.recognizedexpert.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=75

Cialdini is the author of this seminal book...


Worth reading is an understatement!

[From a friend who followed my advice]
Ben...great stuff you are sending!

quick question...we have a negative post re: our seeding for Dr. Mxxx. Any
suggestions on how to undo damage to Dr.'s name?

When can you talk?

G. :-)

Dear G.,

You can all me after 11:30 Eastern and catch me while I drive to Tellman's, but reception doesn't hold on the mountain roads.

SWEET! You've got a live one, or two. Damage to Dr.'s name? I doubt it. Scandal is great for sales. Here's what happened to me:
http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Value-of-Negative-Publicity&id=83521

If Dr. is sweating a couple negative comments he's a wuss. How are sales? What is the nature of the negative comments? If it is about Dr. making false claims, then have Dr. come back and attack the attacker for not knowing their accounting. If it is for tactics of promotion, then use your avatars to play with the negativity.

Have you seen this book:


Great book and perfect for these heated debates. What is position B that all conversations need to lead back to?

Your goal was to create heat and tension. Now that you have it, play. That's right, play.

Isn't it amazing some people want to pay more on taxes? I can't believe this tax lover is raising such a stink because Dr. M. is giving away these secrets. Pass a law if you don't want these to be legal.

The most powerful man most people have never heard of is Edward L. Bernays. On another blog I have a link to a wonderful documentary on his tactics. Bernays invented modern mass persuasion.

My blog on the Edward Bernays video can be read here:
http://onlinemarketingdump.blogspot.com/2006/10/edward-bernays-is-father-of-modern.html



If we hope to effect our reader's actions, we should study the art of persuasion.

I will draw on Marxism and postmodernism to analyze Kurt Vonnegut’s character Howard W. Campbell, Jr.

On the one hand, Vonnegut reflects Marxist ideas. Vonnegut’s character Howard Campbell observes that the elite benefit from an illusion the underclass perceives as real. In addition, Vonnegut uses at least one term that Marx also uses, ruling class. The following quote is Howard W. Campbell’s words being read aloud in Slaughterhouse Five:
“‘Americans, like human beings everywhere, believe many things that are obviously untrue, the monograph went on. Their most destructive untruth is that it is very easy for any American to make money. They will not acknowledge how in fact hard money is to come by, and, therefore, those who have no money blame and blame and blame themselves. This inward blame has been a treasure for the rich and powerful, who have had to do less for their poor, publicly and privately, than any other ruling class
since, say, Napoleonic times.’”†
--Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Slaughterhouse Five; 1969



Vonnegut creates an idea parallel with Marx, examining a subordinating idea of America’s ruling class:
“The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e. the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force…The ruling ideas are nothing more than the ideal expression of the dominant material relationships…”
--Karl Marx, Ruling Class and Ruling Ideas

Vonnegut has Howard W. Campbell, Jr. discuss Marxist ideas in Slaughterhouse Five. I more trenchant exploration of Marxist ideas can be found in Mother Night where Vonnegut first introduces Campbell. Originally published in 1961, Vonnegut rededicates Mother Night to his lead character in the 1966 edition where Vonnegut also creates a new introduction which begins:
“INTRODUCTION/ This is the only story of mine whose moral I know. I don’t think it’s a marvelous moral; I simply happen to know what it is: We are what we pretend to be…”
--Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Mother Night; 1966

In other words, pretending makes reality, which echoes Marx’s concretization of illusions:
“…active, conceptive ideologists, who make the perfecting of the illusion of the class about itself their chief source of livelihood”
--Karl Marx, Ruling Class and Ruling Ideas

Illusion. The ideas of a ruling class are not empirical but illusions actively cultivated by conceptive ideologists. Who are conceptive ideologists? Publicists, advertisers, politicians and everybody involved in communications.

Vonnegut stated that Mother Night was his fictional, metaphorical autobiography where a Nazi radio personality is actually conveying secret codes to the allies.
“This book is rededicated to Howard W. Campbell, Jr., a man who served evil too openly and good too secretly, the crime of his times.”
--Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Mother Night; 1966

Vonnegut was a publicist before becoming a novelist and appears to be putting himself on trial for his work as a full-time publicist and part-time humanitarian storyteller. As a publicist for General Electric, Vonnegut was an active, conceptive ideologists who helped this hegemonic multi-national company craft its illusions and make its points through spectacle and rhetoric. Vonnegut must have been inspired by his corporate strategist colleagues and forefathers who concepted the electric chair to visually demonstrate the dangers of direct current, the product of a competitor. Mechanized murder for profits made adorable by the names of liberty and democracy is the role of the propagandist, who in 1961 was not yet called a publicist but a pressman.

Campbell, Vonnegut’s proxie, is tried for crimes against humanity and Mother Night ends with Campbell being nauseated that he is allowed to walk free so he chooses to take his own life. As an autobiographical character, that’s being tough on himself. But the story of Howard Campbell doesn’t end there.

Vonnegut employs techniques Fredrick Jameson associates with postmodern writing (e.g., pastiche, non-linear plot, wide variety of unusual techniques, discussion between history and nostalgia and their roles, etc.) to simultaneously engage and distance the reader from the stories surrounding Howard W. Campbell, Jr.. Kurt Vonnegut reintroduces Campbell in his 1969 breakthrough novel Slaughterhouse Five where Vonnegut also uses Kilgore Trout as a character; Kilgore Trout is also a NomDePlume of Vonneguts.

Here’s the rub, Vonnegut has repeatedly publicly stated that the war events in Slaughterhouse Five happened to him as depicted through the novel’s protagonist Billy Pilgrim, that the events that take place stateside are autobiographical events, yet Vonnegut constantly reminds his readers that Billy Pilgrim isn’t Kurt Vonnegut. Vonnegut is telling us that his words are not history; Vonnegut is heavy handedly demonstrating illusions in his history. Techniques often associated with postmodern writing are being used to help illustrate Marx’s “whole trick of proving the hegemony of the spirit in history” by driving a wedge between history reported and known reality.

Vonnegut demands you NOT take his history too seriously. First, through a phantasmagorical usage of time-travel. Second, the Howard Campbell stories in Slaughterhouse Five and Mother Night contradict each other. Third, time travel is just plain hard to reconcile in objective historical representation.

Kurt Vonnegut is letting himself off the hook for any real deaths he may have caused in the physical war, but holds himself in contempt for crimes against humanity as a publicist, an “active, conceptive ideologists” whose livelihood was perfecting of the ruling class illusion.
The techniques common to postmodernism isn’t what makes Vonnegut’s work postmodern. Jameson suggests a postmodern artist is candidly stating where she sees society. But an exact definition of postmodern art or of a postmodern analysis won’t be agreed upon.
“Impossible now to pose the famous question: ‘From what position do you speak?’”
--Jean Baudrillard, The Precession of Simulcra

Since I can’t fit Vonnegut’s text of his character into a postmodern definition, or extract meaning by inferring an exact perspective, I’d like to draw on a layman’s analysis I found at Amazon.com:
“…what Vonnegut accomplishes in Mother Night is to rescue post-modernism from its more nihilistic tendencies, and makes it clear that our unreal selves can sometimes have real consequences…to make it clear that while the ‘self’ is amorphous and changing, our actual actions have a clear impact on others and cannot be fortified from morality.”
-- D.C. Ober, Amazon.com; July 30, 2006
Mother Night; Post-Modern Morality Tale?

Perhaps. However, while D.C. labels Mother Night as postmodern, she generalizes Vonnegut’s “a moral” to a class of morality, as if morality is empirical. Yes, Vonnegut discusses “good” and “evil”, but these words are not capitalized and are such not a pattern integrity either in a specific set of ideas nor the form of an energy such as a spirit.

An empirical morality challenges the Marxist perspective I understand. Marx appears not to suggest that one idea or another is right or wrong, but that a new ruling idea may emerge that presents itself as being in the interest of all members of society:
“…For each new class that puts itself into the place of the one ruling before it is compelled, merely in order to carry through its aim, to present its interests as the common interest of all members of society…”
--Karl Marx, Ruling Class and Ruling Ideas

Uht-oh. Where’s the god? God is what holds order in place and creates an empirical morality. D.C. jumps from Vonnegut suggesting a moral or two can be gleamed from his story to a morality. Morality is a reflection of the righteousness of my cosmography.

If a definitive right and wrong exists, then art might as well be binary and linear. Life doesn’t fit inside of words constructing immutable mental boxes. A postmodern perspective is a way for me to embrace what doesn’t make sense to me in culture.

Vonnegut employs the phrase, “so it goes” to help blow off steam and simply move on. So long as folks are forcing their delusional mutually-exclusive-completely-exhaustive set of Earthly rules to me, I need help blowing off steam.

Between the original publication of Mother Night and its re-publication in 1966, an alarmist book was published that swept the nation’s conversation. Here’s the text from the front cover:
“The carefully documented story of America’s retreat from victory…/
”None Dare Call It Treason/
“1964 is a year of crisis and decision. Will America continue to aid the communist enemy, to disarm in the face of danger, to bow before communist dictators in every corner of the earth? The decision is yours!”
--John Stormer, cover of None Dare Call It TREASON

What a fabulously engaging drama. Quick question: what corners of the earth? Do these folks still see the world as flat and therefore possibly having corners? It is just tough for me to take this pulp seriously. And this is minor. How can I reconcile transubstantiation with what my eyes tell me. Or, when the pope sits on his throne of Truth where everything he says is deemed absolutely true? And, who took the unicorns out of the King James Bible? That was my favorite part. All this occurs to me as absurd and yet I see folks organizing themselves around these ideas I have trouble taking seriously. Good morning Troy, New York. FUBAR, fucked-up-beyond-all-recognition. Now what? We speak what truth we can, and wade through our own personal ambiguity:
“I loved my motorcycle more than I loved my wife…this is one of those moments when somebody speaks the truth, one of those rare moments. People hardly ever speak the truth, but now I am speaking the truth. If you are the friend I think you are, you’ll do me the honor of believing the friend I think I am when I speak the truth.”
--Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Mother Night

Does it get an clearer than that?
Why do I care about postmodern art? What’s in it for me? The techniques of postmodern art creation can validate my disjointed feeling of living in an engineered world, where those that don’t see the cosmographic seams of the human construction must be suffering from agnosia. And, yet, there are so many of them and all we have are bright and creative people on our side.
Artists don’t always have full choices. Speaking too plainly can be hazardous. Many works of art don’t speak plainly about the subject of their analysis, as in Citizen Kane where Orson Wells pretended he wasn’t discussing William Randolph Hurst, or 1984 where George Orwell pretends he’s not discussing 1948.

Similarly, Vonnegut doesn’t talk directly about Karl Marx and yet he speaks as plainly as he can through the gatekeepers and censors of our time. Vonnegut never overtly states his support of Marxist ideas. Stating a support of Marx would have been a death nail to the popular success of his novel. While it is easy to find Marxist values in the text of Howard Campbell, the name Marx is kept separate from the ideas of Campbell. Sure, Howard Campbell has a Jewish guard named Arnold Marx, but that has nothing to do with Karl Marx. Right?

Is there a line between lying for survival and lying for a living? Vonnegut communicates the arbitrary elements of our beliefs by stating that had he been born in Germany, he would have been a Nazi. This casual ambiguity helps commingle the ideas of our victorious culture with the ideas of Nazi Germany. This commingling separates, or at least questions, the empirical reasons we associate with our ideas, setting the groundwork for a society based on the illusions of belief and these inherent dangers. The 1966 Mother Night begins with the introduction I cited above. However, here’s the rest of that sentence:
“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
--Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Mother Night; 1966

The prudence of “we must be careful about what we pretend to be” comes from something unpleasant. Why revise the introduction? Speculatively, this revised introduction was a response to the 1964 manufactured interest around the book None Dare Call It Treason by John A. Stormer which conservative pundits used to sustain the Communism scare 10 years after McCarthy was deemed a wacko.

Perhaps I’m biting off more than I can chew by referencing outside of my specific text for analysis. However, when written words lose their explicit meaning, then the division between text and reality also blurs. In sharing a draft of this essay with my friend Dr. Fink, he asked how I could be certain that Vonnegut was aware of Stormer’s book None Dare Call It Treason. I can’t. However, Stormer’s book sold over 10,000,000 copies in 1964 while Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code sold less than 8,000,000 its first year in the U.S., with more than twice as many adult American book buyers, and way fewer books per-capita being sold back then. In other words, to suggest that a writer striving for popularity not be aware of Stormer’s None Dare Call It Treason appears to me as tragically unaware of 1964 contemporary media and the root of the Zeitgeist of the time. I would prefer to speculate how many Vietnamese the American public would have championed slaughtering without None Dare Call It Treason. I’d wager on fewer if we had a way of calling the bet. But to suggest that Vonnegut was not aware of None Dare Call It Treason is like asking if somebody in 1986 knew we lost Space Shuttle Challenger. You couldn’t be an active citizen, engaged in popular media, and not know we lost the Space Shuttle.

Knowing and not knowing. Perhaps Baudrillard is right that we can’t ask from what position a person speaks. But what if position is not a fixed place but a tone? There are least two basic tones: righteousness and non-righteousness. Sure, we can get ourselves into intellectual paradoxes with a division so simple and how this type of analysis is binary and may appear to contradict ideas presented so far. I’m okay with that. I’m not obligated to explain myself to your content, just my own. I’m speaking from a position where I know you’re a voyeur. I know I’m speaking in typed words from an observed position. I know that tonally None Dare Call It Treason presents itself as Truth while Mother Night, refers to itself as a confession, reflecting the perspective of a wrongdoer. Moreover, None Dare Call It Treason discusses the “Truth of reality” while Mother Night goes out of its way to remind you not to take the words literally but teasing out the relationship between the book and its fiction, where Vonnegut not only appears as author, but as a fictitious editor who came across a manuscript by Howard W. Campbell and concludes his “Editor’s Note” with:
“…no single name to which I might aptly dedicate this book—unless it would be my own.

“This book is rededicated to Howard W. Campbell, Jr., a man who served evil too openly and good too secretly, the crime of his times.”
--Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Mother Night; 1966

If there is blame to be found, Vonnegut is examining his role and pointing to himself. Stormer’s None Dare Call It Treason points the blame at our enemy, the Communists, who are “bad”. We are good. There is little cut-and-dry around Howard W. Campbell, Jr.. If there is bad to be found, Vonnegut first looks at himself in Mother Night, and condemns himself for the crime of a publicist. Nothing similar is found in None Dare Call It Treason—we’re good; they’re bad.

Tolerance for ambiguity is the backbone of Vonnegut’s postmodern text.
“All this happened, more or less. The war parts, anyway, are pretty much true.” (Billy Pilgrim)
--Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Slaughterhouse Five

Without a promise for accuracy, Vonnegut describes his war experience and what lead him to writing these experiences down in a book. In the process of revisiting Howard Campbell, Vonnegut kills him, which is the same outcome as Campbell committing suicide since the character represented Vonnegut who now wrote the execution.

Vonnegut’s most recent book, A Man Without A Country is a memoir. Should this not be considered part of the text of Howard W. Campbell? Only to the extent the text is autobiographical because the character of Howard Campbell is not referenced.
Howard W. Campbell, Jr. is just one of at least four names Vonnegut calls himself in his own text. As Vonnegut gets older and continues to smoke, it appears he really did kill his Campbell. Perhaps he didn’t need him anymore.

“So I went to a friend’s house –Bernie O’Hare, who’d been my pal. And we were trying to remember funny stuff about our time as prisoners and the war in Dresdon, tough talk and all that, stuff that would make a nifty war movie. And his wife, Mary O’Hare, blew her stack. She said, ‘You were nothing but babies then.’/And this is true of soldiers. They are in fact babies. They are not movie stars. They are not Duke Wayne. And realizing that was the key, I was finally free to tell the truth...”
--Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., A Man Without A Country; 2005

The truth Pilgrim speaks in Slaughterhouse Five is the redemption for Vonnegut, transitioning from an “active, conceptive ideologists” who made the depicting of the illusion his chief source of livelihood to presenting truth:
“…devoting his life to a calling much higher than mere business.

“He was doing nothing less now than prescribing corrective lenses for Earthbound souls.”
--Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Slaughterhouse Five; 1969


finis
Notes
1Postmoderism: The Rough Guide by David Morley; Cultural Studies and Communications pg 51

†"While the British colonel set Lazzaro's broken arm and mixed plaster for
the cast, the German major translated out loud passages from Howard W.
Campbell, Jr.'s monograph. Campbell had been a fairly well-known
playwright at one time. His opening line was this one:

"'America is the wealthiest nation on Earth, but its people are mainly
poor, and poor Americans are urged to hate themselves. To quote the
American humorist Kin Hubbard, "It ain't no disgrace to be poor, but it
might as well be." It is in fact a crime for an American to be poor, even
though America is a nation of poor. Every other nation has folk
traditions of men who were poor but extremely wise and virtuous, and
therefore more estimable than anyone with power and gold. No such tales
are told by the American poor. They mock themselves and glorify their
betters. The meanest eating or drinking establishment, owned by a man who
is himself poor, is very likely to have a sign on its wall asking this
cruel question: "If you're so smart, why ain’t you rich?" There will also
be an American flag no larger than a child's hand--glued to a lollipop
stick and flying from the cash register.

"The author of the monograph, a native of Schenectady, New York, was said
by some to have had the highest I.Q. of all the war criminals who were
made to face a death by hanging. So it goes.

"'Americans, like human beings everywhere, believe many things that are
obviously untrue, the monograph went on. Their most destructive untruth
is that it is very easy for any American to make money. They will not
acknowledge how in fact hard money is to come by, and, therefore, those
who have no money blame and blame and blame themselves. This inward blame
has been a treasure for the rich and powerful, who have had to do less
for their poor, publicly and privately, than any other ruling class
since, say, Napoleonic times.

"'Many novelties have come from America. The most startling of these, a
thing without precedent, is a mass of undignified poor. They do not love
one another because they do not love themselves. Once this is understood,
the disagreeable behavior of American enlisted men in German prisons ceases to be a mystery.'”
- Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

“I think that novels that leave out technology misrepresent life as badly as Victorian novels misrepresented life by leaving out sex."
--Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., A Man Without A Country; 2005

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