From Mess to Message – the Real Cause of All Divisions

When Dean Graziosi teaches about marketing, he often says, “Every mess has a message.” The idea is simple – you show people how you got out of the mess, and you’ve got a message.

It is true. Every mess has a message. This made me think, “If every mess has a message, what is the message of the mess the world is currently in?” We all know the mess we are in. Divisions. There have always been divisions in the world but not to this degree. The world is divided, countries are divided, and even families are divided.

There must be a message in this mess. What is it? The answer came serendipitously after watching a video about the inner workings of propaganda. It was a curious experiment on how propaganda could make people call white black and black white.

The goal was simple – make a person believe that a white ball in front of them was black. At first, I thought it was a joke. How can you make someone call a white ball black if they see it with their own eyes? But it worked!

In a group of ten, one person was the subject (the others were actors who did the “convincing”). The facilitator would ask every person in the group what color the ball was. The actors would pass the ball around, calling the white ball black.

You could see struggle building up in the eyes of the subject. They knew they were sane, but how could this be? Doubt was rising. If everyone calls this ball black, maybe something is wrong with my eyes.

If the person still said “white” after the first round, the experiment would continue. The power would “suddenly” go out in the building. The crew would apologize and light the candles. The people would wait around the table, chatting, laughing, and sipping coffee. Then, the lights would come on, and they would continue.

This time the subject felt some affinity with the group. He felt one of them. They had had such a good time together. Usually after the second round, the subject would succumb to the pressure and call the white black. If not, the experiment would continue.

This time, they would tell everyone in the group why they had been invited in the first place. They were all individuals with an exceptionally high IQ. Most people in the group were PhDs. Their opinion mattered. This would usually be the last blow – the subject would cave in.

Later, the facilitators commented on their findings. They said, “The people who believe they are not susceptible to pressure, are the easiest to convince. They fall after several rounds of various forms of pressure.”

There was only one category of people who didn’t give up. They kept calling white white. Two simple ladies. They kept looking at the white ball, feeling the same emotions of self-doubt and confusion. But when it was their turn to speak, they would say:

“Well, it certainly looks white to me. I could be wrong. I don’t insist. But I see what I see.” The facilitators said, “Surprisingly, we were not able to convince them otherwise. Those who don’t identify themselves with their opinions, don’t cave in. Those who do, fall.”

This spells out the message of our current mess – our opinions have become our identities. We feel we are nobody unless we have them. Egos always clash. We are so convinced that we know that it becomes very easy to make us fall.

It’s so hard to say, “I see what I see, but I can be wrong.” The apostle Paul said,

“Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.”

And:

“Let anyone who thinks he?stands?[who feels sure that he has a steadfast mind and is standing firm],?take heed lest?he?fall.”

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