The Big Lie theory

The Big Lie theory has been used by public figures (politicians and media alike) for many generations. There are several pieces to the Big Lie:

  • The bigger the lie, the more likely people are to believe it. Simply put, tell a lie large enough and people will assume that it’s true because you couldn’t possibly have the audacity to say such a ridiculous thing if it wasn’t true. This was seen recently with the $700 billion government bailout. We were told that if something wasn’t done right now that the whole world was going to implode and it would start raining frogs (ok, maybe not that last bit).
  • Never allow the public to cool off. By keeping the public in a frenzy over an issue, nobody gets a chance to stop and really think about what they’re being told. On the off-chance that someone does realize what they’re being told, having a frenzied public keeps the person “in-the-know” from being heard. The recent bailout is a good example of this one as well. Most people were so worked up about how bad things were that they didn’t realize that, for the most part, things weren’t that bad for them.
  • Never leave room for alternatives. By opening the door to the possibility that there might be another option, you allow for “your enemy” to plan their attacks. If you make it clear that there are no other options, you reduce the choice to a simple yes or no: You’re either willing to save the economy or you want to see it wither and die.
  • Concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong. We don’t have to look any farther than the past election cycle to see this. Even though Bush wasn’t in the race, the vast majority of the campaign, on both sides, was about blaming him for all of the world’s woes. (Does anybody else remember hearing Bush being blamed for Hurricane Ike?)
  • If you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it. This is true of so many political discussions. Whether it’s Social Security, Medicare, Immigration, Iraq or any of the other major issues in the world today, some politician has used this to bring the public over to his or her side.

For more information on this, check out the wikipedia page.