The first chapter of Rushkoff's Coercion is a dense overture of themes and examples, highlighting the various ways commerce exploits discoveries in psychology, neurolinguistics, and social behavior to bend a person's decision-making to the benefit of the seller, only incidentally if at all consistent with the self interest of the buyer. It's Rushkoff's particular achievement that he catalogues the varied & increasingly sophisticated manifestations of this deliberate intent to manipulate the consumer. Later chapters focus on specific themes brought up in this first chapter.

Rushkoff distances himself from previous arguments in Cyberia and Media Virus, in which he staked out internet-optimistic positions based upon its potential to counter coercion. Primarily the fault in these arguments was in thinking the popular will would realise this potential, whereas what appears to have happened is that sales & marketing have done so belatedly but far more systematically than have the consumer. But Rushkoff can't shake his optimism entirely, making for an ambivalence throughout the text, as though he keeps cautioning his over-enthusiastic self.

Rushkoff's argument here also is ambivalent on just what constitutes coercion. His narrative is best understood as an exploration of manipulation, one less concerned with the theory or over-arching account of what it is, than with identifying the repeatedly harmful outcomes such manipulation visits on unsuspecting consumers. At various points, Rushkoff characterises coercion as:
-- Consistent with Dale Carnegie's 1936 approach outlined in How to Win Friends and Influence People [37]
-- Exemplified in the CIA's 1963 Kubark Manual on interrogation (interrogation here evidently intended to be distinct from physical torture) [38]
-- In some instances distinct from persuasion or simple influence, but at others an extreme form of them [303]
-- Lying to oneself [212]

Rushkoff establishes the systemic nature of manipulation as the premise of modern business: consumer manipulation succeeds by identifying tactics and then adapting to the defenses people instinctively and deliberately put in place, more quickly, consistently, and broadly than any individual reacts, precisely because the factors driving commerce are organized and outfitted with resources to achieve results. And while its adherents build and employ this system of influence, it operates separately from any one of them. The victims of manipulation, on the other hand, are primarily individuals who build defenses in a scattershot and inconsistent fashion, and at present do not display a defense corresponding to the systemic efforts to influence. The dynamic at play, then, is that of a system operating upon a dispersed and only loosely conscious and integrated population, and it is small wonder the system has the upper hand.

Rushkoff's concerns lie within Gaventa's second and third dimensions of power, though he does not reference Gaventa in this work. Rushkoff's conclusion is that ultimately, no conspiracy exists in the sense of a cabal of oppressors: there are no coercers except "us", in that those behind the manipulation are the same people who at other times are the targets of those techniques. In our occupational roles, especially in the advertising / marketing / sales trades, we build the coercive machinery which operates on us outside these roles, as consumers. A valid insight, which unfortunately leads Rushkoff to suggest we should "shrug off" this manipulation, simply stop acquiescing to its pressures. This conclusion is facetious at best. What is needed is a means of countering the power brought to bear against individuals through a matrix of manipulative tactics, a parry or posture equal to the attack. What that might be, and whether it may avoid utopian ideal or a Pyrrhic victory, is unaddressed here.

Coercion is meant as a popular book, certainly, but the argument is too loose and the prescription far too weak given the underlying premise. There is a raft of suggestive data, and a broad frame (manipulation) in which to organise it. Perhaps sensitised to the techniques he studies, does Rushkoff undermine his own argument in an effort to avoid performative contradiction?

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Another example of social sciences used in support of tyranny, though the research originally was undertaken with the intent of assisting or at least understanding the exploited. (BC's instance of efforts at community building used later as target lists following a change in administration.)

Individual defense against influence of emotion and confusion aligns with the arguments for meditation: be in the moment; ground self in principles; be present / dispel automata.

Coercion is perhaps the obverse of the coin explored in Thaler's Nudge, and highlights the drawbacks of instinctual thinking as explored in Gladwell's Blink. It lays out the case for media literacy as a life skill in post-industrial society. ( )

This book was highly informative and interesting to read. Many of the ideas addressed in this book were beliefs that I myself have had about big media. It is nice to see other people researching and writing about what is really going on. Brilliant. ( )

Another well-written book on the evil forces arrayed against ordinary people in the battle for profit. ( )