A guide to Federal Electioneering

 

 

Q: What is “Arpa Narpa Narp“?

 

A:Where everyone’s bills are going, according to folksy, down with the biddies, Tony Abbott today.  
Strangely enough Sir Roger don’t recall his bills ever going anywhere else over all his long years. Except at Col’s, where they’re going Darndarn (Proiza Sadarn). Or not.

So why did Abbott, sitting among the cooing old ladies, make such an obvious claim?

He said it because the biddies (and the viewers) would find, oddly enough, that they agreed with him. And they would nod, and frown at the awful bills (Goa Narp).

And people watching on teevee would not only agree but see that Abbott was someone other people agreed with.

“It seems it is all right to agree with Abbott,” they might think, “and what he said makes sense, doesn’t it?”

The problem, of course, is that Arpa Narpa Narp is where bills always go. And despite suggesting otherwise, and despite his royal telephone, or the dimwitted cardinal, there is absolutely nothing he can do about it. And he knows it.

If you think about it you can work that out.

Average incomes have doubled in less than a decade. Inflation isn’t going below zero, nor are interest rates.

Abbott and/or his advisers knew exactly what he was doing. (Actually on balance, probably just his advisers…)

The technique is to make a statement which provokes an instant, automatic response in what Daniel Kahneman calls “System 1” thinking.

System 1 is fast, impulsive, automatic, uses stereotypes, is often inaccurate and can only make good judgments on simple tasks. System 1 thinking doesn’t take much energy at all.

Bread and . . . . . . . . . . . . ?

2 + 2 = . . . . . ?

Quickly: A bat and ball cost $1.10. The bat costs $1 more than the ball. How much is the ball?
Quick! What’s your immediate answer?      $ . . . . . . . .

17 x 13 =  . . . . . . . . . ?

So politicians (and their advisers) attempt to speak directly to System 1, to manipulate a desired response and not to give people time to rouse “System 2”  into action.

System 2 is the thinking that works things out and considers complex problems.

System 2 takes attention. Filling out forms, deciding which phone or soap powder represents the best value, working out what to say to that girl or boy, writing your thesis.

System 2 is much better at working things out but it gets tired really quickly because it uses so much energy.

That’s why politicians and the Murdoch tabloids don’t like to give people a chance to actually think too hard. They might work out the scam.

So Sir Roger recommends not letting them get away with it. Listen to their simplistic nonsense so that you know when they’re lying — (as Stuart Wagstaff used to say, “and isn’t that…all the time?”).

Tell your friends.

  

  

By the way, in our quick test did you get that the ball was 10c?

Sadly, no. If the ball is 10c, then the bat, costing a dollar more than the ball, would be $1.10 and the total for bat and ball would be $1.20, not $1.10 as stated.

The ball is actually 5c.

Oh, and 17 x 13 is obviously a System 2 exercise … can you do it in your head? Well done! 

17 x 13 = 221

And now you feel like taking a nap.

Daniel Kahneman’s book is called Thinking, Fast and Slow. Sir Roger HIGHLY recommends it. Available on Kindle, too.

 

  

Thank you for reading this far!  You might think producing a post like this takes a bit of work. 
It does! If you’ve appreciated it you might consider encouraging me. ( We all like validation! )   

Buy Me A Coffee

All posts

Categories

You might also like:

The Meaning of Life

Sunday Sacrilege   nsights from the great Joseph Campbell, Mythologist, best known for his work in comparative mythology and comparative religion, author of The Power of Myth, The Inner Secrets of Outer Space, and The Hero with a Thousand Faces...

What Cheney Really Thinks

Invading Baghdad Would Create a Quagmire   n this interview from April 15th, 1994 Dick Cheney reveals the reasons why invading Baghdad and toppling Saddam Hussein's regime wouldn't be a great idea. He also stipulates that "not very many"...

Trump – Can He Lose?

Snake Oil & Fury  T here's no argument amongst Trump's enemies, his grovelling enablers, and even among millions of his supporters, that Trump is a professional liar, and that"liar"  defines almost the entirety of Trump's persona. It is not possible to listen...

Assessment of Current Australian Politics

  Executive Summary     ir Roger has been absent from his adoring public. He has been busy, of course, and apologises from the bottom of what is left of his heart; from what is left of Australian politics by the Australian politicians who have...

Mount Migently Manifesto

 Australian Values   ustralian values have lately been enthusiastically asserted by some Australians and Sir Roger has been much impressed – in much the same way a washed-up prize fighter feels the repeated impressions of his opponents’ fists...

Migently Mountain Manifesto: 3

11.   Science is not a set of facts. Science is a process. The process is to — a) observe, b) speculate, c) propose an explanation (or “theory”), d) devise an experiment which i) can be repeated (“replicable”) and ii) can prove the theory false (“falsifiable”) e)...

Drool Britannia

Unemployed Man Weds Fashion Accessory Buyer oday we celebrate the marriage of an unemployed¹ man, the son of a barking madman and a kindergarten teacher, to a fashion accessory buyer, the daughter of a flight attendant and a...

Not Fade Away

Howard tries to remember something before it (or he) fades away....   rime Minister John Howard will call the Federal Election this week¹, probably Wednesday, according to pundits, Canberra insiders and the entrails of the Apec monster which...

Anzac Day 2011

  Carnage incomparable, and human squander    On this Anzac Day: f there is one thing that can be said of war it is that it is a massive betrayal of Humanity. It is a monstrous failure of human imagination, vision, ingenuity and intelligence....

(unscheduled interruption)

via GIPHYA Rare and Precious Thing We interrupt this pre-recorded segment to bring you an impromptu message from our sponsor.   ir Roger has been touched by the loyalty of one of his longterm readers and a fellow-blogger to muse on the...

Haneef “Not Uninnocent”

  The materials available to me While there are inferences that are available from the material I have, I am of the view that they are not sufficiently strong to exclude reasonable hypotheses consistent with innocence.” – Damien Bugg, DPP Did...

Passionate Indifference

Indonesian war crime     SW Deputy Coroner, Dorelle Pinch, this week found that the newsmen known as the Balibo Five were deliberately killed by Indonesian forces 32 years ago to cover up the Indonesian invasion of East Timor.   She has...

Such Is Life

"Unemployed at last!"    e think this is the best Australian novel ever written. Yes, we know there are many contenders and perhaps The Tree of Man comes a close second. But to us, at least, Such Is Life by “Tom Collins” (Joseph Furphy),...

Guantánamo Career Suicide

 Guantánamo Policy Chief Pulls Plug on Career: Spills Government Beans in Radio Interview     eputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Guantánamo Policy, Charles “Cully” Stimson, resigned following uproar over a 12 January interview on...

Don’t you understand, John?

It wasn't about David Hicks: How Howard fucked himself whether Hicks came home or not.   icks might go away out of the political limelight but the way Howard has treated him will be the reason Howard loses the next election. If he does, Howard...

Blameshifting 101

You've got to hand it to our Prime Monitor. He is the absolute guru of blameshifting and that’s something to be proud of. You know, he has a position to maintain, an aura to protect, an air of infallibility to project. We can’t have him looking weak and fallible.  He...

Loose Ends, Bad Ends

   Loose ends:   ‘Lying’ Downer, the Minister for opening his mouth and seeing what comes out, denying everything on principal and making it up as he goes ”  has rejected claims of a major connection between opium production in Afghanistan and funding of the...

Rude Britannia & Australian Values

How Very Dare You!  Yes, we know, the British are the world leaders in "la politesse"  and "cortesia" (ironically*). They will never be impolite to anyone. They would never call a black person a "nig-nog". Not to their face. They would never call an Australian a...

The Old Tart Vanishes

  Levers and pulleys of a flimsy fantasy machine   t’s all about perception, as they say, and in politics perception is truth. But, as MacDonalds say, for a limited time only. We were struck over the last few days by the sudden...

The SIEV X-Factor

“A Certain Maritime Incident”   ichard Fidler interviewed  Tony Kevin on ABC's Conversation Hour  last week. Tony Kevin is an activist who was one of the driving forces behind the campaign to uncover, and especially to tell, the truth about...

Tony Blair: All the Perfumes of Arabia

 Doctor: What is it he does now? Look, how he rubs his hands. Gentlewoman: It is an accustom’d action with him, to seem thus washing his hands. Foul Whisp'rings Are Abroad   S ir Roger has been listening and reading about Celebrity War Criminal Tony Blair’s 720 page...

Review of recent DIC Waving

  A slightly different audience ...   ome time ago, Bob Correll, the Deputy Secretary of DIC¹ , contacted us to complain that the Values Australia website “may seriously damage Australia’s reputation overseas” before going on to threaten...

Mouldy Media Pop-Tart

    ust a question: Why do we have to keep putting up with fatuous, mouldy, media pop-tart, Gerard Henderson, spouting all over the place? This pompous irrelevance who ludicrously has laid claim to being in the political centre, whose...

John Howard: Strong or Weak?

Choose Your Favourite War Criminal   hat extraordinary influence our Groveller General enjoys with US President Bush. Mr Howard said he will raise the Hicks issue when he meets the US President George W Bush on Tuesday…Mr Howard says he will...

Only Thus?

  Let’s get one or two things clear: We are not against Jewish people in general. We are opposed to the actions of some individuals in particular. We are not opposed to their religion in particular. We are opposed to all religious belief (except, of course, the...

Communities Thank Pokie Addicts

You look comfortable under your newspaper . . . ight around Australia – which is, you know, NSW and a couple of other fairly unimportant (albeit it occasionally charmingly old-fashioned) bits – Community Leaders are in panic over the impending loss...

A Troll! A Real Troll!

C  Values Australia is proud to welcome its very own new pet Troll!   ur new Troll is very sophisticated. It can even fill out a Contact form! Here is its latest message: you are a dickhead You are a fucking gronk go home outrageous lefty [Not...

A Brief History of Dog

  Clever Brainiac Shorthand   he (£1-a-day) Times has released excerpts of Stephen Hawking’s soon to be released new book, co-written with American physicist Leonard Mlodinow, The Grand Design. The universe can and will...

DIC to the Rescue!

Life-Hack: How to satisfy yourself!    e reported yesterday [Black Breath of the Nazgûl] that the terrorist legislation implicitly requires you to satisfy yourself that anyone to whom you provide a service, item or product of any kind —  which...

0 Comments