#2 "Coercion At Its Best

               Lightly holding on to an excerpt from the book “Coercion: Why We Listen to What ‘They’ say” by Douglas Rushkoff my eyes began to glaze over and many thoughts began to flow in my head. What stores do I come to first when I enter the mall?  What items do stores put in their windows to catch my attention?   Wal-Mart, I know you put the toys in the checkout lane so my little girl will try to get me to buy it.    Kroger, I know how you offer points to get money off of gas so I use your store.  So I concluded after these thoughts that no way could I be coerced.  I was above the advertising agencies and media.  I, Samara Clemons cannot be tricked to do anything!

                Douglas Rushkoff explains in this excerpt that no matter how hard we try to avoid these tactics, it’s impossible to avoid.  As he states, “In most cases, if the coercion works according to plan, we don't even realize it has been used.”  I love how he compared the Coercers to hunters, “They can don better camouflage, learn better ways to scent their prey, develop longer-range bullets and more accurate sights, but they still need to find their quarry and then figure out which way it's moving so they can "lead" with the gun barrel and hit it.”  I felt like this was a perfect way to describe how coercers are forever changing and adapting to ensure their goal of capturing us is achieved.     

                Am I above Coercion?  Apparently I’m not.  At the end of this article it was clear to me that I had been manipulated by Douglas Rushkoff.  His well-played out book uses a series of techniques to draw me into the story and persuade me to keep reading.  When reading the line, “you have been exposed to a battery of coercive techniques. In fact, everything you have read so far has been concocted to demonstrate the main techniques I'll be exposing in this book,” I began to smile.  Not only had he expanded my knowledge in this subject by a well written piece but he also used his techniques to better illustrate his points. 

                Was Douglas Rushkoff the only person to persuade me into reading this excerpt?  No, Mr.  Benton had already done this by explaining that credit would not be given if this paper was not completed.  According to Douglas Rushkoff, Mr. Benton is a “They” in my life, deciding my fate and creating my future.