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Uploaded on Oct 20, 2011 - Dynamic keynote speech delivered by Simon Anholt at the Opening Session of EuroPCom 2011.

Simon Anholt is an independent policy adviser working with Heads of State and Government and with national or regional administrations to develop and implement strategies for enhanced economic, political and cultural engagement with other countries. As a keynote speaker for EuroPCom 2011 he pointed out what the EU should do to regain its communication 'sense of purpose' in the 21st century.

EuroPCom gathers communication managers and senior experts of local, regional, national and European authorities to share their strategic insights and practical experiences in actual communication challenges.

The ambition of EuroPCom is to improve public sector communication by


�sharing best practices among public communicators of major European, national, regional and local institutions, about themes such as branding, social media or dialogue with
citizens;
�stimulating active involvement of decentralised communicators in the communication strategy of the European institutions;
�enhancing transfer of professional communication know-how towards all political levels;
�facilitating networking among those working in public communication across the EU.

UCgL_0sMDvxKEzpHhn9KU8Cg/playlists > EuroPCom 2011 - Keynote speech by Simon Anholt
A facinating talk, I would argue propaganda to be defined by thousands of year of full control over information. The pretend game use to be good enough to confuse people but now the big lies are crumbling at the edges.

It is a logic fallacy to say people are using propaganda all the time therefore it works. It's effectiveness is measured by you not knowing it is being used. What is the point in lying to people if they know you are lying - all the time?

The only thing keeping old methods going is that we don't know how to do things differently, we haven't figured it out. It might not be easy, it might not even be possible... To know we would have to try first. Before you can find answers you first have to ask the right questions. If what you know about the world is partially a lie the answers are hard to find. In combination with a complex problem we simply render ourself without solutions.

What is the right business model for planet earth? We have to design one that works without external authority. It is tempting to go for efficiency but it would be smarter to put stability first. In the end, spending the worlds resources to fill landfills in order to earn a few coupons is not going places. We are not accumulating absolute wealth that way, only relative wealth. The relative wealth buys far less than people think. Bicycles in stead of ocean liners, beans in stead of space stations, socks in stead of holodecks. "I have socks and you don't", kind of "wealth"