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Only... For Those with Short Memories

Albert Einstein, when asked to define insanity, said: "It is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." However, it has become more likely that this definition in the 21st century, amidst the massive information revolution brought by the internet and the resulting powerful search engines and expansive social, promotional, and advertising networks, is now questionable. It could be rephrased as: "It is possible to repeat failed experiments and obtain different results if one possesses the ability to re-present and market these failed results in varied formats and for insincere reasons to an ever-growing segment of people with short memories."

In addition to the vast flow of knowledge generated by the internet, a significant influx of misleading ideas has seeped in, decisively impacting the majority of people. This influence has rendered them short-sighted and filled with skepticism and doubt about everything around them. It has become increasingly difficult to resist this overwhelming flow and the marketing capabilities of information, ideas, products, and services of all kinds, while taking the time needed to research, scrutinize, examine, and review. This has allowed for the re-presentation and marketing of previously failed ideas, products, and services—declared unsuccessful not long ago—as successful, even exceedingly so.

One day, Joseph Goebbels, one of the Nazi propaganda masterminds, said: "Lie and lie until people believe you." This statement remains valid today, but using modern tools and what is known as mass marketing, even if it contradicts scientific facts (through "science" too). But what kind of science? It is directed science, funded by millions of dollars, designed to cast doubt on scientific facts that were reached with integrity and impartiality. A practical example: credible scientific studies have proven that fossil fuels have significantly affected the climate and raised the planet's temperature due to global warming, which will have catastrophic consequences on all aspects of life. Given this reality, it was necessary for the vested interests and influential powers affected by these implications to confront this scientific truth with various forms of skepticism, funding targeted scientific studies. This necessitated combating the proposed alternatives for addressing these issues with the same skepticism, such as planting seeds of doubt about electric cars, wind turbines, etc. Thus, by sowing seeds of doubt and marketing it, established scientific facts become topics of contention and debate among divided audiences, allowing vested interests and influential powers to continue their destructive work on the planet. This is often aided by corrupt politicians, legislators, and lobbying groups, stalling internationally agreed-upon programs like climate agreements, even withdrawing from them. This leads to large segments of societies parroting these fabricated lies, discussing them as scientific truths, and turning genuine scientific experts into figures of suspicion whose evidence and facts are disregarded.

In our current era, the biggest beneficiaries of the chaos stemming from the secondary issues of the internet revolution and this media space are the wide opportunities it provides for fools, scammers, and populist politicians to gain extensive visibility. This phenomenon strikes at the foundations of human societies, as essential concepts such as equality, social justice, the right to life, fair competition, and democracy are all being strongly undermined by these groups. They have found their way to spread their ideas online and in virtual spaces, successfully attracting broad segments of human societies, even in countries considered advanced in all fields. To illustrate these deep changes, we will discuss two models as examples of this referenced trend:

The Donald Trump Phenomenon: It is essential to pause at this political figure and how he managed, through the virtual world, to overcome all obstacles and achieve a historic victory in reaching the White House and Congress alike. This happened despite facing six charges, each capable of landing him in prison for years and the chaos he incited after losing the 2020 elections, encouraging his unruly supporters to storm the Capitol in an event that shook American democracy, putting the U.S. on the brink of civil war. Yet, he was re-elected by a large, contradictory audience including Latinos, African Americans, Arabs, and Muslims, despite his well-documented disdain for minorities, immigrants, Muslims, and Arabs. His complete lack of empathy for civilian casualties in Gaza, his unwavering support for Benjamin Netanyahu, and his threat to cut U.S. aid to Ukraine while making unbelievable claims like stopping the war in a day, which only the naive could believe, exemplify this. He promoted slogans about returning to fossil fuel investments and threatened to withdraw from climate agreements he deemed based on "lies," all wrapped up in his virtual slogan: "Make America Great Again." This slogan played to the dreams and simplicity of the masses, adding that he would end the wars that began under Joe Biden, as if Joe Biden had started them. This demonstrates how he managed to convince a broad, diverse audience that his failure and chaos witnessed by every American during his first term would be "great" in his second term. It is, simply put, compelling evidence of the ability to market failures as new successes to those with short memories, leading them to chase illusions that will never manifest in reality.

Benjamin Netanyahu: Another example is this politician, who has faced multiple criminal charges but still managed to win elections and form a government composed of far-right figures with criminal records (e.g., Ben Gvir and Aryeh Deri). He attempted to overthrow the Supreme Court through proposed judicial amendments that sparked a political storm in Israel. His political standing hit rock bottom during these protests. Under his leadership, Israel experienced its largest attack, resulting in hundreds of deaths, injuries, and kidnappings by an armed faction with minimal capabilities compared to Israel. Netanyahu granted this group unprecedented financial aid from Qatar and released over a thousand of its members, including the mastermind of the attack, Yahya Sinwar, in exchange for one soldier. He engaged in war on multiple fronts, displacing residents of both northern and southern Israel. He dismissed Defense Minister Gallant for simply echoing what most Israelis and the world were demanding. Yet, public opinion polls still show him as the most likely candidate to win if elections were held today. How can such phenomena be explained in the 21st century, when each of these failures would be enough to topple even the strongest governments in the world? This leads us back to the ability to market failures as new successes to those with short memories, in this case by fostering a sense of existential war and presenting himself as the only one capable of leading it. Without him, Israel would not exist on the map, and he alone could resist the harshest international pressures, even from its most significant ally, the United States.

In conclusion, it is no longer sufficient to speak the truth or offer beneficial products or services that improve people's lives. It is not even enough to know how to market them. Perhaps what is more important is knowing how to resist the skepticism and misleading ideas that may undermine everything you say or offer to people.