Be Smarter Than the Frog
“Because getting people to act against their own self-interest is what I do for a living” ― Amanda Waller, Suicide Squad.
The analogy of The Frog and the Melting Pot is probably one of the most accurate depictions of how the ruling class get the public to accept all kinds of drastic measures against their own self-interest.
The story goes like this:
You want to eat some frog, but you don’t want to do it in broad daylight, so you wait until the sun sets down to start hunting.
You wait for midnight, you grab your headlight, and camouflage yourself with the dark cover of night.
You spot the prey, stalk it, sneak behind it and then you point, aim and shoot.
With the LED beams of your high-powered flashlight.
That’s how you catch frogs, by blinding them into immobilization. The bright gleaming light of the beacon is deadly efficient in keeping their natural instincts at bay. For a moment there, they’re unable to move.
Which allows you a few seconds to slide your net right under their noses.
Don’t Blink
That’s how you got them in the bag, and that’s how you’ll cook them alive.
By playing their own instincts against them and getting them to act against their own self-interest.
“Men (people) are rarely aware of the real reasons which motivate their actions.” ― Edward Bernays, Propaganda.
You’re in the kitchen now, your prey is packed, bagged and too scared to act.
You reach for a pot, grab the lid, snatch the matches and head towards the stove.
Your first instinct is to throw the frog in the pot right away, turn the heat to the max and get it over with... After all, they’re only food for you.
But let’s think about this for a second.
)
If you put the frog on a high powered flame then it’s gonna immediately feel the burn and jump out of the pot without hesitation, right?
Sure, it can’t jump out of the pot right away, but it certainly can climb through the pot walls which above all are much cooler than the base surface it’s standing on which is pretty much scorching at this time.
You see, the extreme and sudden change of temperature would inevitably put the little animals into alert and activate their survival instincts.
The way to do it is actually is by setting the heat at a very low temperature first so that you keep those survival instincts in check.
It’s just a slight temperature change, what is there to be alerted about, right?
After all, it’s just a slight increment in heat, there’s no reason to be scandalized.
Why not try this for a change? After all, it’s warm and toasty here, and if we spend a little bit of discomfort on that, then that’s a small price to pay for a little warmth and coziness.
A few minutes have passed and now you go check on the frog again. You realize that it has totally been acclimatized to the current temperature and now is totally programmed into accepting its new habitat as the new normal, so much so that it can no longer conceive another possible scenario.
In fact, you’re pretty much certain that at this stage, it can’t even remember how things were before.
"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past." ― George Orwell, 1984
So, how about raising the temperature just a little bit more, just to keep things interesting, shall we?
What are a few more degrees going to do anyways?
Now it’s getting slightly uncomfortable all around, but at the same time there’s nothing that would tip the frog’s survival instincts off and put them on alert mode.
The plan has been so brilliantly executed in such manner that the slow increments would keep the frog totally oblivious of the risks that are to come.
And remember, you want to cook them just cold enough so they don’t realize they're being cooked, and just hot enough so their organs are failing them without even realizing it.
And finally, when all said and done, when they’re too weak to act, and when they’ve invested so much time in the very trap they thought was built for their own comfort.
It’s then and only then when you set the flames full-heat ablaze.
It’s at that moment that they finally face what they were too afraid to face, when it’s damn too late to do anything about it.
When it’s too late to escape.
The Final Act
That’s the only moment where you get to see the whole picture, when the curtains are being pulled down only to discover the brickwall they were masking with the red silky covers.
It was a trap all along.
The show is over now. The band is no longer playing and the music has long stopped.
You reach under the chair and you find a mirror underneath your seat.
Don’t look.
What you see raises the little hairs on your arm and sends chills down your bone.
You are the frog in the melting pot.
Luckily for you, this is just a fictional tale… Maybe.
… To be Continued.
I'm the wise frog with the speed of a mongoose and the reflexes of a cat, try your best damn torch shining skills at me human!
Haha beating one's own instincts.
Btw, I just realized I wasn't following you. Fixed. Thanks for all the great contributions you always make.
Haha it's all good mate, I just thought I wasn't special enough. 😂
You're welcome, got to show appreciation and support to great work and blogs people create and you are one of my favourites.
Also like the very first person's blog I ever commented on. :)
Haha no, I keep writing and I forget to click "Follow". I need to learn to multi-task more.
Thanks a lot man! I do appreciate it.
Wow, this is very insightful! I think this kind of thing happens every day especially between those in power and the ones they wish to control. Great writing, @the-alien!
Thanks Eric! Yeah it sort of happens everyday. In all aspects as well, whether it's "austerity measures" or wars or anything in between.
That's what they said about Vietnam and Iraq "it's just gonna be for a couple of months" hehe.. Little by little, reality changes and people get accustomed to it :P
You're welcome! So true. It's great to by hyper aware of this kind of thing so we don't become like the cooked frogs. : ) I see taxes the same way. A new tax is created and it's just menial at first but it incrementally gets larger and more of a burden over time. Our property taxes in the city I live in have become out of control. Before we sold our home we'd have to pay our quarterly property taxes but then the city started billing us for "special assessments" that were over and above the normal property taxes. We'd get these nice little surprises twice every year. The bills ranged from a few hundred dollars to almost five thousand dollars and had to be paid in 90 days.
Oh I'm with you a 100%. In fact that's the main subject of the continuation of this post, the incremental increases :)
Game of control is ending non stop...proccess is slow, so we dont notice it, but it is happening all the time.
'You can fool some people some time, but you can fool all the people all the time'
That's an amazing quote! Thanks btw Neo!
I knew this tale, but just the second part, the one of the pot. It's been used in a speech by our CEO to our employees, go figure! (very motivational one).
Your writing style is lean and very nice to be read, compliments for making a heavy topic very much readable.
Awareness and criticism in life is essential if we don't want to be frogs, or sheep. I wish that steemit shall become a tool and a weapon for awareness and freedom and not another mass-entertain / mass-control instrument it's all up to us! (unlike you, I have a long way in learning how to make heavy things look fun).
First of all thanks for the kind words, I really appreciate it. I do try to make heavy subjects readable and entertaining so I appreciate you comment a lot.
Steemit is indeed a great way to put forward such subjects, there's a lot of open-minded people in the community which is really great.
Curious about your CEO's speech by the way.
Thanks again.
Well, should I be honest? He was talking about our customers and the prices ..that need to raise slowly. I won't say more as I already can see the sicarios knocking at my door. Haha..ha..ha..mmh.
Haha at least we learned something: It's used everywhere it seems.
yes, even in a twisted and opposite way..unfortunately ;-)
Haha it happens.
Oh btw, I just wrote an article on money laundering and tax dodging..whose message is alike yours in the end. I was discussing with my wife, i really need to find a "captivating" way to put things or else I'm worried that no one will read such bricks :-P
Oh man! That kind of reminded me of the red cross taking millions in donations for Haiti and ended up building 6 houses.
Not 6 thousands, just six. :P
About how to approach subjects, I think you always have to pay attention to the audience.
I could be wrong, but that's what I try to do.
Hi Alien! I LOVE your post! Resteemed, upvoted, following and suggested for @originalworks upvote.
My blog/posts are along the similar vein, exposing the deep-state-slow-roll. This is definitely not a fiction but an accurate allegory!
@dakini5d
Hey @dakini5d, @originalworks thanks guys! I'm glad you liked it.
There will be a second post tomorrow or the day after, showing how this very same analogy is used to screw the public little by little.
The Romans had their Fabian society, but this is allegory has been used all over history.
Anyways, thanks again!!
Yes, its the long view of social-engineering. Check out my piece on the Texas Drag Queen Fest normalizing the sexualization of children when you get a chance. Nice to meet you and will look out for your next post and resteem it.
Oh man! Hopefully that scandal would pop soon like with Weinstein
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Great writing @the-alien! I think we experience this thing most everyday on some level. Is this what is considered part of the human condition?
Hey @team101! Nice to see you again!
That's an excellent question, I wish I knew. But I don't know exactly what the human condition is or what accurate the term is :P
And you're right, this is something we experience everyday on some level or another.
Great writing loved it
Thank you! :)
This has been truly insightful. Keep up the good work and the people in the world will be able to make a difference by their decisions!
This is almost creepy in its synchronicity to a conversation my husband and I literally just had. Using the very same analogy of the frogs in the pot, and slowly turning up the heat, this is what the 'masters of the universe' or whatever you might want to call them, have been doing to the masses (so call it a fictional tale, but I know better ;)
Wow I can't believe you just analysed the frog's behaviour with those interesting words. I have not eaten frogs before, neither am I planning to. But eh eh, nice one.
Thanks it's just an analogy :)
Yeah, all is well lol