It is strange how people think messaging works. Imagine trying to tell people to trust in your strategy that is about ‘zero trust’.
I saw this advertised yesterday and wondered who thought this up?
The logic of this marketing is to trust in zero trust. Such marketing makes language nonsense and meaningless.
Zero Trust (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/security/zero-trust/) is a ‘security strategy’ that Microsoft want you to trust. They say ‘it’s not a product of a service’, but ‘an approach’. Sound familiar? (S2, SD, HOP, NV, RE). Sounds like having no methodology or method, but asking people to ‘just believe’.
The language of ‘Zero Trust’ says that it wants to cultivate a security mindset that ‘never trusts, always verify’. Except Microsoft wants maximum trust of Zero Trust. It states:
‘A Zero Trust approach should extend throughout the entire digital estate and serve as an integrated security philosophy and end-to-end strategy.’
You can read all about Zero Trust but make sure you don’t carry over any of this Mentalitie to any other part of your business. (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/security/zero-trust/zero-trust-overview). You see, zero trust in relationships is toxic. Zero trust in psychosocial health is toxic. Zero trust is safety is a recipe for disaster. Trust is the bedrock of all stable relationships.
Unfortunately, branding, repetition in language and slogans are very powerful and get absorbed unconsciously regardless of intent. This is how all archetypes and myths work.
There’s much evidence and research to show the power of messaging to influence the human and collective unconscious:
- https://www.academia.edu/57606648/Mind_over_media_Conscious_and_unconscious_responses_to_media_messages
- https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-unconscious-thought-and-perception-affect-our-every-waking-moment/
- https://www.innergrowthcoach.com/the-impact-of-subconscious/
- https://www.binauralbeatsfreak.com/subliminal/what-is-subliminal-messaging
- https://medium.com/@hikhush1010/realisation-of-the-power-of-unconscious-absorbent-mind-0dc0abe4c5bf
- https://archive.org/details/subliminalhowyou0000mlod_l9p8
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3612179/
- https://copymate.app/blog/multi/subliminal-advertising-mechanisms-of-subtle-persuasion/
- https://andreivanchuk.com/how-conscious-and-unconscious-influences-shape-consumer-perception-a-two-tier-system-in-branding/
- https://www.researchgate.net/publication/380070614_The_Unconscious_in_Husserl%27s_Phenomenology
Messaging is not neutral. Words, text, images, symbols and semiotics penetrate the unconscious regardless of intent. You can put an image of a fist punching on a brick wall and rationalise it as much as you like, but whether you like it or not, the semiotics of a fist and brick wall are aggressive, masculinist and not relational. You can talk all you want about empowering women in safety, but when your semiotic is a stiletto, the message is the opposite.
If we are not cognisant of possible contradictions in messaging then, the most powerful message is the one that effects the unconscious, not the conscious message. For example, punishing the violence of children with more violence, doesn’t work. What they lean unconsciously is that violence as a method is effective.
I know, what your IT department needs, Zero Trust.
Just wait long enough and see what the culture of the IT department will be like in your organisation.
Dr Rob Long
Latest posts by Dr Rob Long (see all)
- The False Claims of the Bradley Curve - November 4, 2024
- Unconscious Messaging and Zero Trust - November 4, 2024
- The Wisdom of Semiotics, Myth and Poetics in Risk - October 31, 2024
- Spot the Spin and the Myths of AI - October 28, 2024
- Safety Under Stress - October 28, 2024
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