Coercion

Rating:
Summary: an eye-opening and compelling look at the way things are
Review: rushkoff is a on the road to becoming a national treasure-- a populist, brilliant and ethical cultural critic. coercion may be his strongest work to date, a witty tour de force through the world of subtle hidden manipulations crouching all about us. rushkoff is no conspiracy theorist, and this is not a dark work. his is a life-affirming vision. "Coercion" empowers us to think more authentically, to catch a transformational glimpse of the world as it is. a very, very interesting book, one that i find myself thinking about quite often.

Rating:
Summary: A great read
Review: Rushkoff never fails to entertain and informat the same time. If you want to learn about the world at large, do yourself a favor and read this book.

Rating:
Summary: worthwhile in spite of flaws
Review: Rushkoff spells out a number of disturbing ways in which people are manipulated. He points out the psychological techniques used by salesmen. He describes the ways that shopping malls program the atmosphere to get you to buy. He describes how stadium events are used to activate mobs. He discusses spin doctors, advertisers, and commercial cults such as Amway. He discusses the consumer profiling on the Net.

An example of the type of detail he provides is on p. 96:

"Grocery shoppers respond best to Muzak that has a slower tempo, making a whopping 38 percent more purchases when it is employed. Fast-food restaurants use Muzak that has a higher number of beats per minute to increase the rate at which patrons chew their food."

The book is not without its flaws. For example, on p. 208 you find this sentence:

"By adopting the postlinguistic currency of an iconic culture, marketers can reposition themselves and their brands in a manner consistent with the operating system of today's point-and-click marketplace."

Maybe I'm too old to appreciate "post linguistic," but to me this is just babble. I wish that a Neil Postman or a Wendy Kaminer would knock some of this nonsense out of him.

Rushkoff's disrespect for language can be found in the book's title. The dictionary definition of "coercion" is restraint by force or governmental power. He is talking about something that falls short of that. Most of the time, what he means by "coercion" is what I would think of as "manipulation."

This is not an insignificant issue of terminology. By calling so many things "coercion," Rushkoff overdoes it. I mean, while I find it very interesting and provocative that Rushkoff draws an analogy between the cult-style brainwashing of multilevel marketers and the fanatacism of Apple Computer owners, I was not persuaded to equate the two.

Although the flaws in this book should not be overlooked, they ought to be forgiven. He gives us a great deal to think about.

A longer book review is available from me via email.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Introduction To Coercive Mindwars
Review: Rushkoff's most solid and well-written book to date, an excellent introductory overview of the coercive tactics and techniques used by Internet e-commerce merchants, multi-level marketing personnel, car dealers, and the U.S. military (the 'appeal to a general and broad readership audience' hot-button).

Rushkoff offers insights from his own consulting career, revealing that issues aren't as simplistic or ideologically pure as is sometimes portrayed (the 'response to critics' and 'juicy inside gossip' hot-buttons).

The index and bibliography are well worth pursuing, including Philip Kotler's seminal 'atmospherics in shopping malls/casinos' work, Noam Chomsky's de-construction of thought control in 'democratic' societies, Peter Watson and Christopher Simpson's review of psychological warfare techniques used on domestic populations (car salespeople using CIA interrogation manuals to increase sales), or Robert Dilt's study of the neurological basis of NLP (the 'appeal to authority', 'appeal to power', and 'appeal to specialist, esoteric areas' hot-buttons).

In an escalating arms race, it's no longer just persuasion (Vance Packard) or influence (Robert B. Cialdini), but coercion. Buy a copy for yourself and one for your friends! (the 'if all else fails, make the buyer feel fearful' hot-button).

Have I coerced you into pressing 'buy' yet?

Rating:
Summary: an excellent survival manual,; it exposes the methods used
Review: the writing style is still a little on the young side. Nobody is going to confuse this with great literature, but that's not the point. After being through some sales head trips, I've wondered, how did that interaction work out the way that it did ? After reading this book I have a much better understanding of exactly what is going on in the sales psychodrama and I feel like I am in a superior position to control the outcome. That's valuable knowledge. Reading Coercion hasn't made me any more cynical, but it has honed my vigilance and helped me focus my attention on what is really going on, versus the scripted illusions of what the interaction appears to be. Was I shocked or surprised ? No, I expected it to be the way things are, but this book gives enough specific information to make the sell side more transparent. Which is exactly what they don't want. I had already read Toxic Sludge Is Good For You,a really disturbing book about public relations and the shaping of public opinions, so Coercion felt like a natural extension of that line of thought; things aren't as natural as they seem to be. This book is a must read for any young person setting out in the world, because the young are especially vulnerable to the manipulative techniques that Rushkoff exposes. Forgive the book's imperfections because they don't detract from the good points in a meaningful way.

Rating:
Summary: This book is highly overrated.
Review: This book claims to talk about how we are coerced by large corporations, public relations firms, governments, etc. It is too bad that by the last chapter it degenerates into a rant against consumerism. Most of the second half of the book is a long ego trip that is entertaining only because it is so over-the-top.

Rating:
Summary: A difficult read.
Review: This book is a little long which, for me, translates to it having missed the mark. Although I've a long standing belief that people are coerced into acting, buying and believing a variety of things as a result of the manipulation of truths and half truths and had hoped to find evidence for support, I'm sorry to say I did not. The opening chapter's examples amounted to childish story telling and it wasn't until much later in the book that Mr. Rushkoff opened the door, ever so slightly and much too late, to reveal a place where untold millions are spent to fool and deceive. Too little too late, for me.

Rating:
Summary: Unrealised Potential.
Review: This book is a valuable little inventory of coercive techniques and strategies used by the various traders, promoters, marketers to sell their products (whatever these may be..)in a turn of the century late free market capitalist society, namely the US.Ranging from hand-to-hand selling of products and nlp, shopping mall "atmospherics" and the mass "spectacles", to public relations brief basics, advertising cults (the most insightful section of the book with a well thought out and detailed analysis of how a cult operates in principle and how the different brand names aim for cult-dom), "pyramids" (systems of organization where the benefits remain in the top of the so called pyramid and the rest of the elements at the lower levels work for the sole benefit of those at the top) and an intro to virtual marketing. So far, so good.

My main qualm about the book though is the confusion that the author seems to be in (I cannot phrase any better). I will explain what i mean. With some good editing this book could have been cut down to 1/3, leaving out all the unimportant case histories (stories of friends and acquaintances of the author) that do not help illustrate the points the author is trying to make, the self-referential info and Rushkoff's "dear-diary" ponderings. It could then have been a near perfect overview of the techniques and going by the name of "coercive techniques" instead. But if one selects the austere title "coercion" for his book then the reader is justified to expect a much more analytical, in-depth analysis of the nature of coercion as it is enforced in free market economies of today (or at least a clear ideological stance from the part of the author, and not find at the very end of his book driving through an upper-class neighborhood in his yuppie friend's car asking himself if he himself could use some of the luxury and security that a successful business man savors.)

So, if you are looking for the inventory and are willing to plough through the book to get to it then go ahead, no prob. If however you interested in a concise social commentary then you most probably need look elsewhere in the social sciences. I personally found this book lacking in many respects but I do not regret having bought it. I just think that coercive techniques, manipulative corporations and traders are just a product of a socioeconomic system and not the cause of it, and that to protect oneself from the alienating effects of such methods one need not know the methods themselves but have a strong viewpoint on the workings of the system as a whole and distance his or her self from the manic consumer mentality.

Rating:
Summary: Good material, lousy English
Review: This is a must read for all filtering the onslaught of manipulation that we all are the target of. The book needed some better editing. The author does get carried away, as if typing an article on the Internet.

Rating:
Summary: Rushkoff's best
Review: This is a remarkable book. I've been involved with marketing for many years, and Coercion gave me an unprecedented understanding how our new forms of media-- the Internet especially-- are reshaping how we influence people to behave the way we want them to. As we get increasing feedback on the way people (aka consumers) think and function, thanks to interactive technologies, Rushkoff raises the fundamental question: what free will do we have left?

I won't give away his answer to that. You'll have to get the book to figure it out....