Why Official Stories Are Risky
One of the primary principles of positioning is to be first in a particular category or market.
If you can be first in your category, then your prospect will naturally think of you first when he is ready to buy.
This principle of positioning works the same way with history. The media writes the first version of history, and it’s almost always wrong, incomplete, or misleading.
Unfortunately, once written and published, most people accept the first version of history as fact. It often becomes “official,” even if it is untrue.
Years later, the official story is repeated in history books in thousands of schools. To question the official story is to be a conspiracy theorist. And to try to get people to see the truth is like trying to reroute an eight-lane highway: nearly impossible.
Hitler was a master of lies and propaganda. He wrote this in Mein Kampf…
But the most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly and with unflagging attention. It must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over. Here, as so often in this world, persistence is the first and most important requirement for success.
And so we see that even false versions of stories can become “official” if they are 1) first in people’s minds, 2) confined to a few major points, and 3) repeated often.
Just remember: An official story is rarely synonymous with the truth.
So whenever you hear an “official story,” be skeptical.
Determine the facts as best you can… then let those facts tell the story as completely as they can… apart from popular bias.
-Ryan M. Healy
