Exporting "spin"

Today we all learned a valuable lesson in the form of Chinese bureaucracy...it is ever-lasting. I have to hand it to China, they quickly picked up on a valuable lesson it took us years to learn in America--spin works. Recently, according to Bloomberg, the Chinese government will no longer suppress news reports. In lieu of this the Chinese will work to control the message. In short, "spin" the message. And here is the genius of their bureaucracy--they have now gotten new purpose.

Back home, in the US for me, we have the NSA (National Security Agency), and somewhere there are tens of thousands of government workers listening to telephone calls and reading emails across the vast expanse of American telecommunications. So too, apparently, is something like this in China. Well, in China these people now have the ability to do what we in the US so far have not--read everybody's mail.

I say this because I used to do this for a US Congressman--I read his letters from constituents and answered them. Well, if there was a vast uptick of particular questions about a particular problem he addressed it. So too can the Chinese. If there is an army of people reading your communications every day--and there is--those people have access to your hopes and fears. In a world where consumers and constituents can complain on so many mediums why not use this information for social stability? I mean if you already have no problem with the fact that you are being listened to, and apparently the Chinese do not, then why shouldn't the government use this very tool to address populace concerns?

In short--the old bureaucracy of listening and suppression can be the new bureaucracy of message spin. Why not take all those wonderful bureaucrats and have them put together reports on the "chatter" going on domestically? See where people are most concerned and in what areas of their daily lives they care about the most. I mean, if you already have no problem with Big Brother than why not at least let it help people a little bit, right? I mean they are paying for it after all.

And that is just one man's opinion.

-A Wise Man from the East