Sunday January 15, 2023

I caught just a snippet of an interview on the CBC news, the other night. The speaker seemed to be saying that the way to judge the validity of unsolicited messages – in email, on public media, or in-person – is to identify the emotion that it appeals to.
Frankly, the volume of information thrown at me, every day, overwhelms me.
A witticism on the internet says, “I found a solution to all the bad news I see on TV. I quit watching TV.”
I feel that way about email sometimes.
I subscribe to a number of mailing lists. Several are news oriented. Mostly bad news – although a couple of newsfeeds always end with “something to brighten your day.”
Several mailings try to be uplifting, insightful, or devotional messages or meditations.
And then there are the ones I never subscribed to.
• Offers to make my columns go viral.
• Invitations to become Canadian agent for a Chinese manufacturer’s products.
• Incitement to take arms against the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.
I don’t know how I got onto some of these lists. I certainly didn’t click any “Subscribe” buttons. Indeed, many of them appeared shortly after I clicked “Unsubscribe” on some other unsolicited mail. Which leads me to suspect that “Unsubscribe” really means “Forward this sucker to some other sender.”
The only cancellation that didn’t refer me to another list was an ultra-conservative daily so venomous about Joe Biden and anything Democratic that I felt I should get a rabies shot for self-protection.
I don’t know how I got onto its mailing list in the first place. But it let did me unsub.

Emotional hooks
But – getting back to that CBC interview’s point – many of the postings on Twitter or Tik Tok focus precisely on negative emotions.
They want you to get angry. Frothing-at-the-mouth angry. Ready to go out there and shoot someone. Or at least wave a protest placard.
The other dominant emotion in them is fear. Fear that a Mexican immigrant will take your job. Fear of anything that smells remotely like socialism. Fear that a vaccine can inject a microchip that lets the authorities track you anywhere, or a gene-altering technology that will cause cancer, or a hormone that will make you grow hair like Chewbacca.
Fear doesn’t have to be grounded in fact. Mere supposition is often sufficient.
Sadly, some of the supposedly less-reactionary newsletters use the same tactics.
So an animal rights newsletter might headline, “Woman who starved her cats deserves jail!” An environmental mailer might declare, “Last old-growth forest being logged!” A human rights publication blames Qatar for “thousands of migrant worker deaths” while building World Cup facilities.

Manipulating reactions
Confession: my first full-time job was writing radio commercials -- whose sole purpose was to manipulate hearers’ emotions so that they would do what an advertiser wanted.
Depending on the length of commercial purchased, I had between 50 and 150 words to do it in
My job was clear – grab the listener’s attention, make my case, ask for their action.
It never occurred to me to think about what emotions I was appealing to.
Moat likely, in hindsight, either greed or ego.
Greed. Save more at Woodwards Food Floor. Get discounts at Wosks. Earn dividends at Commonwealth Mutual.
Or ego. Look smart in a suit from Harrison’s. Be the envy of the neighbourhood with vinyl tile from Floorcraft. Take the trip of a lifetime to Tahiti on Qantas.
I don’t recall ever writing a commercial that appealed to hatred. Or prejudice. Although I’m sure some of mine were unintentionally sexist, assuming that men made decisions; women looked after the house.
That fragment of a CBC interview gives me a yardstick for measuring the messages I receive every day. Commercials on TV and radio. Spam in my inbox. Chat at the water cooler or the coffee break.
Does it appeal to what I think of as the higher emotions? Or does it try to hook me with the baser ones?
I think we Canadians have a general agreement about which emotions are laudable, and which ones aren’t?
Almost everyone would agree that good is better than bad.
I have difficulty imagining anyone preferring hate to love – although their lives may not always embody that preference.
Similarly, most people would rate kindness, compassion, fairness, sensitivity, and generosity higher than, say, greed, hostility, prejudice, and bigotry.
Looking at the buttons that a message pushes, in you and in me, offers a quick test for whether that message deserves attention. Or deletion.
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Copyright © 2023 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups encouraged; links from other blogs welcomed; all other rights reserved.
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Your turn

“I've resolved to have nothing but good intentions,” was Tom Watson’s response to last week’s column. “That's a start, anyway.”

Jim Hoffman: “You pointed out an interesting aspect of making resolutions, Jim. When people make resolutions, it's something positive -- I don't know anyone who makes negative resolutions or desires to be a worse person. That, in itself, makes resolution-setting a worthwhile endeavor for everyone. It encourages people to think about how they can improve, how they can become a new and better version of themselves. When that happens, they not only have created a ‘new me’ for themselves -- but also a new, improved person for others to appreciate being around and to interact with.

Nenke Jongkind wrote, “I gave up on making New Year resolutions many years ago, probably when I dropped TULIP.as my understanding of Calvinism.”
Then she went ahead and made a resolution: “This year I plan to take my own coffee mug along --I usually carry a water bottle and miscellaneous other necessities -- in an extra small handbag. Just to limit some unnecessary garbage.”
In a second email, Nenke clarified, “The theology of Calvinism has been immortalized in the acronym TULIP, which states the five essential doctrines of Total depravity, Unconditional election, Limited atonement, Irresistible grace, and Perseverance of the saints.”

My daughter Sharon decided to take me seriously:
“Whereas my children tell me I have too much stuff; and
Whereas I know I will be moving at some time in the next 5 years and possibly combining my material belongings with yours;
andWhereas I happen to work next door to the WUC Thrift Store:
Be it resolved that I shall donate at least one item from my home to the Thrift Store every day. (Whether they want it or not!)

Vera Gottlieb in Switzerland: I have never really attempted to make New Year’s resolutions… My everyday ‘resolution' is to keep my self-respect, respect others, and help others whenever required. With the advent of these ’smart’ phones, I see too many people immersed in their world no bigger than the phone’s screen. And now the use of these earplugs that block out all noise -- even a voice calling for help…or hearing a bird sing…or wind blowing through leaves…

Betty Darby chose to respond to the larger theme of that column: “Old age is a great privilege that few get to experience, and it is also a huge challenge to appreciate the gift as I confront the challenges. The loss of those who have known and loved me for a lifetime or with whom I have shared long experiences is perhaps one of the greatest sadnesses, as I deal with failing health and the other losses that come with this time of life. There aren't many with whom to reminisce! but many of the memoires are precious and life-giving.”

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TECHNICAL STUFF

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PROMOTION STUFF…

To use the links in this section, you’ll have to insert the necessary symbols. (This is to circumvent filters that think some of these links are spam.)
Wayne Irwin's “Churchweb Canada,” is an inexpensive service for any congregation wanting to develop a web presence, with free consultation. http://wwwDOTchurchwebcanadaDOTca. He set up my webpage, and he doesn’t charge enough.
I recommend Isabel Gibson’s thoughtful and well-written blog, wwwDOTtraditionaliconoclastDOTcom. She also runs beautiful pictures. Her Thanksgiving presentation on the old hymn, For the Beauty of the Earth, Is, well, beautiful -- https://www.traditionaliconoclast.com/2019/10/13/for/
Tom Watson writes a weekly blog called “The View from Grandpa Tom’s Balcony” -- ruminations on various subjects, and feedback from Tom’s readers. Write him at tomwatsoATgmailDOTcom (NB that’s “watso” not “watson”)

ALVA WOOD ARCHIVE
The late Alva Wood’s collection of satiric and sometimes wildly funny columns about a mythical village’s misadventures now have an archive (don’t ask how this happened) on my website: http://quixotic.ca/Alva-Wood-Archive. Feel free to browse all 550 columns