Coercion: Why We Listen to What "They" Say

Argues that bosses, so-called experts, and authorities real and imaginary have taken over much of the decision-making power in our lives, and explains how the new technolgies and media innovations are being co-opted to shape our world and to damage individual initiative. 22,500 first printing.

Until recently a cyber-optimist who, in popular books like Cyberia and Media Virus, augured a digital revolution, Rushkoff now warns that the promise of the Net as an open-ended civic forum is fading as relentless corporate marketers peddle their wares and capitalize on shortened attention spans. In a scathing critique that extends far beyond cyberspace in scope, Rushkoff identifies the subtle forms of coercion used by advertisers, public relations experts, politicians, religious leaders and customer service reps, among others. Retreading territory covered by critic Neil Postman and others, Rushkoff provides additional examples of how the ordinary person is often unsuspectingly manipulated, whether in the shopping mall, at a sports event or in a Muzak-drenched store or office. This analysis is particularly strong when deconstructing the "postmodern" techniques of persuasion that advertisers use to reach increasingly cynical target audiences, including commercials that self-consciously mock the marketing process. Rushkoff also argues that mass spectacles (e.g., rock festivals, Louis Farrakhan's Million Man March, Promise Keepers rallies) foster "tribal loyalty" but are often contrived, commercial or downright destructive. He devotes a chapter to pyramid schemes used by cults, infomercials, Internet con artists and get-rich-quick marketers. His freewheeling survey underscores the social cost of these coercive strategies, which, he says, tend to make us see one another as marks. Despite his up-to-the-minute examples, however, his overall analysis is not fresh or original enough to take the place of Vance Packard's The Hidden Persuaders. (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Populist chronicler of cyberculture Rushkoff (Cyberia, 1994, etc.) moves here from his usual optimistic futurism to a somber depiction of a modern society in which everything is a commodity and the only interaction among humans is commerce. In the past, Rushkoff has been a cheerleader for the liberating potentialities of the Internet and other interactive technology. He now has second thoughts as he takes the reader on a tour of the various means used to coerce us into buying or simply doing what we might otherwise reject. His basic premise is that professional persuaders in myriad ways attempt to manipulate to their advantage our basic emotional needs for trust, support, and empathy. Automobile salesmen concoct elaborate ballets of manipulation to control our purchasing decisions, while on the reverse side, the ``soft sell'' of car advertising is simply more subtle manipulation, this time of our distrust of the hard sell. Superstores, through a bewildering onslaught of sight and sound, break down our defenses and rebuild our desires so that we will buy their products. The very architecture of stores, of malls, the careful construction of sound and even smellall are designed to break down our will and get us to buy. Yet such coercion is not restricted to the usual world of commerce. Social movements such as the ``Promise Keepers'' do demographic research on the psychological needs of prospective members and structure rallies accordingly. Even Wall Street and the stock market, claims Rushkoff, are giant shell games of manipulation and control. Finally, the Internet itself has been transformed from a relatively simple technology for communication into a selling medium worth billions. We are alternately ``taught'' to fear the Internet for its supposed complexity and danger (i.e., pornography) and to worship it for its ability to sell us things. Some of what Rushkoff contends may be wildly speculative and overly alarmist, but on the whole he offers a convincing view of the constructed and controlled world in which we live. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From media analyst Rushkoff comes this very enlightening and somewhat humbling look at the ways we are manipulated every day--not only by the media but also by our closest friends. According to Rushkoff's carefully documented thesis, we're bombarded pretty much constantly by appeals to our vanity, our desire to belong to a group, our need for approval. We're taken in by people who turn our own cynicism and distrust of manipulation into newer, much more subtle forms of persuasion. From the attractive sales clerk who compliments our choice of clothing to the bosses, parents, friends, and coworkers who make our decisions for us while making us believe we're thinking for ourselves, Rushkoff reveals all the tricks we use on one another--and reminds us that, no matter how clever we think we are, we're always, inevitably, being manipulated. An essential book for anyone interested in the power of media and the mechanics of deception. David Pitt

According to Rushkoff (Cyberia, Media Virus!), advertisers and marketers are becoming increasingly adept at finding new ways to coerce consumers into buying unwanted products. "The more complex, technological, and invisible coercion gets," he writes, "the harder it is for us to rely on" our ability to detect the hard sell. "As soon as we become familar with the new terrainAbe it the mall, the television dial, or the InternetAit is the goal of the coercion strategists to make it unfamiliar again, or to lure us somewhere else." Rushkoff is particularly interested in the ways that corporations and other for-profit institutions have drawn on underhanded techniques developed by cults, pyramid schemes, dishonest salesmen, and the public relations industry. The good news is that ordinary people "have the prerogative to stop, to think, and to disengage." Lively and well researched, this is recommended for public and general libraries.AKent Worcester, Marymount Manhattan Coll., New York
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.