FUD

There is a term that I am very familiar with but which a lot of people may not know at all - it's called FUD.

Which is an acronym for "Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt" and as best I can determine was invented - or at least came into the mainstream lexicon - when IBM started to see lots of smaller competitors trying to pick off pieces of it's then lucrative computer hardware business - way back in the 1960's.

And as a result, there was once a raft of companies who offered *big iron* - and now there is one.

So the context is that a big monopoly company was being nibbled at by lots of small and technically competent companies. And FUD was invented as a way of helping to keep IBM's customers loyal and making them *beware* the offerings of the small fry. If the customer was not certain about the way forward - then feed them some more FUD!

It was a bit like feeding monkeys - or sheep.

And it worked very well. But what it also did was spawn a whole new industry - which is now known as the *spin* industry. It probably worked a little too well.

What happened since those early days is that the charlatans and the politicians - noticed how well it worked and how successful the big corporate was at keeping the small fry at bay - and so they replicated it.

They built a FUD machine in the *political* world that replicated it's success in the *corporate* world. And ever since it has worked spectacularly well.

To the extent that most people who are uncertain about the way forward - in other words they don't know enough about the *big issues* to make valid choices - are now bombarded with lots of FUD.

Firstly the charlatans make sure that folks are kept in the dark - "we can't have the voters being exposed to the facts - can we". And then we must run campaigns to inundate them with FUD. All designed to manipulate the poor souls.

It's how in 2009 we now have a substantial subset of the rusted on *blues* team thinking that "Climate Change" is a communist plot.

The *spin* doctors and their brand of *FUD* have replaced reality - especially for those people who have difficulty in working it out for themselves.