It's All Just a Sales Pitch: Why We Believe What We Believe

By David T. Garland III

This is a fairly comprehensive excursion through a rationally deduced explanation of why we want what we want, why we believe what we believe and how others make us believe what they want us to believe.

This book reveals the solutions and techniques, as well as the necessary awareness requited to take control of your beliefs and even direc

• Language: English
• Publisher: David T. Garland III
• Release date: Nov 15, 2017
• ISBN: 9780692911723

David T. Garland III

Mr. Garland's experience runs the gamut from sales manager of a nationwide shipping and distribution company to owner of a nationally distributed greeting card company. He has also been a very successful custom homebuilder and real estate investor. He currently runs 'Garland Creative Strategies', a consulting company with a client list that ranges from individual business owners to corporations. Dave is also an accomplished sculptor, screenwriter and author.

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Copyright 2017 by Dave T. Garland III.

The book author retains sole copyright to

his contributions to this book.

Published 2017

Printed in the United States of America

All rights reserved

No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other – except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the author.

ISBN 978-1-943650-50-7

ISBN 978-0-692911-72-3 (e-book)

Published by BookCrafters, Parker, Colorado.

This book may be ordered through

www.artwritecreations.com

and other online bookstores

For Kathy, the world’s most supportive, tolerant, understanding, and loving wife. Your ceaseless encouragement continually inspires me to be better than I am. So thank you for providing the motivational sustenance that allowed me to spill all of these thoughts and ideas directly from my brain onto the pages. And thank you for the relentless provocation that ultimately produced a welcome finality to this project.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

SECTION ONE

Being Trained to Believe

{Introductory Sales Pitch Education}

Chapter One

In the Beginning

Chapter Two

The End of ‘It’.

Chapter Three

The Real Cool School Fool

Chapter Four

Oh Grow Up

SECTION TWO

Replacing Reality and FactsWith Opinions and Beliefs

{The Paradigms of Sales Pitching}

Chapter Five

Reality vs. Perception / Truth vs. Belief

Chapter Six

The Primal Forces of Nature

Chapter Seven

The Herd Mentality

SECTION THREE

The Pitch Masters

{Who, What, Why, How and When to Believe}

Chapter Eight

The Want Fulfilling Marketplace

Chapter Nine

God vs. Religion

Chapter Ten

Politics and the Law

SECTION FOUR

The Warping, Twisting and Perverting of Perceptions and Beliefs

{The Art Of Deception}

Chapter Eleven

Self-Pitching

Chapter Twelve

The Magician’s Tent

Chapter Thirteen

Using Your Brain Without Losing Your Mind

A Few Universal Maxims for

Human Life On Earth

Afterword

INTRODUCTION

Sales pitches permeate, influence and direct our lives from the moment we’re born until the day we die. And, as the evidence will show, sales pitches are truly the origin of all mankind’s opinions and beliefs. This book can serve as a simple guidebook to help restructure belief-based realities back into reality-based beliefs. It can also serve as a debunker manual. You know, to debunk some of the bunk that seems to dominate our beliefs. Only by reestablishing objective observational awareness can the mind maintain an unbiased and analytical thought process and ultimately restore personal sanity, (Or, at the very least, self-respect).

Could Abraham Lincoln really have been right? Can all of the people really be fooled some of the time? Can some of the people really be fooled all of the time? Or is it possible that all of the people can be fooled all of the time? The obvious answer to each of these questions is a resounding yes.

Belief manipulation is definitely the name of the game here. And the game is based on the reality that every human being eventually believes something. The daunting question is: Where do our somethings come from?

This book is for all whose brains haven’t yet completely matured, or manured, into the biased, closed-mindedness of self-absorbed adulthood. For those whose have (and the human brain is far from sedentary and steadfast, so clearly there’s still hope), may this book serve as a tool to un-mature and un-manure the inner workings of your cluttered cerebral storage compartment.

What follows is an attempt to examine and expose the massive impact that sales pitching and being sales-pitched has on individuals, groups, nations and, ultimately, all of humanity. Why? Because sales pitches are, without a doubt, the source, the foundation, the structure and the actual cause of mankind’s cumulative BS infested beliefs.

Most of what we know—or think we know—about reality originates from whatever we’ve filtered and absorbed through our five senses. Everything else we know comes from sales pitches, and when we apply mental thought processes to the combination of our sensory inputs along with all of the sales pitches, a whole bunch of opinions and beliefs begin to coalesce.

We all suffer, to some degree, from tightly held delusions brought about by our mental consumptions of other people’s mental excretions.

Because human beings are creatures of comfort, we tend to believe or accept as truth whatever is comfortable to accept, and conversely we doubt or reject most of the information and beliefs that are uncomfortable. If you doubt this assertion, I apologize for your discomfort.

Nevertheless, the old adage, People believe only what they want to believe is based in truth and in human nature. After all, who would really maintain beliefs that, to them, are decidedly unbelievable?

Unbelievable beliefs are extremely uncomfortable for anyone to believe. There are, I suppose, masochistic believers. I assume these are the ones who perpetually believe their own doubts and then doubt their own beliefs.

One of the primary intentions of this literary expedition is to identify, or at least, expose the role that manipulation plays in the solidification of our deepest, most strongly held beliefs. My contention is that our beliefs are both a result of and a guiding force behind most of our mental comforts and discomforts.

What really validates a belief? Hopefully pursuing the answer to this question will shed at least some light on why our beliefs and doubts become so dear to us that we protect and defend them as entrenched facts, truths and realities.

What role does the sales pitch play in the makeup of the beliefs, viewpoints and values that we hold to be so sacred and irrefutable? And to what extent are these beliefs, viewpoints and values a true reflection of who we are?

To discover how we evolved into this bastion of beliefs and opinions we must go back to the very beginning. Really now, you don’t seriously believe you dreamed up all of your beliefs on your own do you? Don’t be silly, nobody is both that gifted and that egotistical, I hope.

The foundation most human exploitation is built on can be traced back to infancy. As you will see, the origin of life’s voyage through the rolling waves of belief manipulation begins almost immediately with newborn sales pitch training, which, as it turns out, is also the source of most of life’s baggage.

What follows this initiation is a lifelong progression of sales pitch implemented belief indoctrinations. So we’ll start at the very beginning and trace our enduring sales pitch-based belief dependence from its very source.

SECTION ONE

Being Trained to Believe

{Introductory Sales Pitch Education}

Chapter One

– In the Beginning –

Infantile Logic

Isn’t labor a curious way to introduce a glorious new human life? Labor. The word itself embodies so many negative connotations. In order to give birth, women must go into labor and have labor pains. When go into and pains are added to labor, a word synonymous with work, toil, and effort, how can it be a pleasant experience for either the mother or the newborn?

The general response newborns give is a boisterous bellow. It’s almost an extension of the ear numbing, delivery room mommy screams that even the loudest rock star would envy. From the newborn’s perspective the situation is little more than an unexpected, unwelcome, coming-out party that interrupts the comfort of a warm, cozy, albeit cramped, fetal condo.

To most adults it’s a slightly more complicated process. They see this as a procedure wrapped in moral and ethical issues, gender based value judgments, and, of course, the mystery of a father’s inability to maintain any degree of cool in the delivery room. I certainly didn’t.

Regardless of this ubiquitous pathway into existence, it (the newborn) successfully endures this rude awakening and, once again, another celebrated life begins.

Birth: when you and me, and all

of the other he’s and she’s, first

appear as nothing more than little

its. Henceforth, every cute,

cuddly, chubby cheeked little know

nothing newborn will be referred

to as it (at least until it has

matured enough to deserve a less

demeaning moniker).

This innocent babe is callously dragged, kicking and screaming, into a strange new realm only to be further assaulted by a disquieting flurry of bright lights, commotion, and noise. But these minor inconveniences are not in vane, because the world is blessed with yet another miniature bundle of human potential.

In most cases there are others around: doctors, nurses, and a mother to be sure. But this newest addition to the population doesn’t know these people. Doesn’t even know they are people. Yep, as far as it is concerned, this first worldly experience is an unfamiliar cluster of pulling, poking, and wiping.

Yet, even with the perpetual bombardment of new sensations, newborns get over it pretty quickly. Most are cool with the whole scene, primarily because they don’t know squat, not yet at least. Squat (n. [skwɒt] do-do, poo-poo). ¹

Squat is one of the very first sales pitch lessons in what will eventually be a lifetime filled with other crappy sales pitches. Making squat, along with peeing, sucking, and crying, becomes a force that enables this miniature human to completely control the actions of even the most intelligent and experienced adult.

This diminutive Churchill lookalike emerges into the world without any expectations. There are no visions of grandeur, no fantasies of success, or majestic goals to pursue, or worthwhile employment opportunities for that matter. The concept of a future itself is nonexistent. We’re talking clean slate here. Having been abruptly severed from a modest life-support cord, this wee little creature is forced to successfully engage a self-contained breathing apparatus without the assistance of an instruction manual.

Mother Nature generously provides almost every child with this instinctual function. Mother Nature? That’s right, two mothers for each kid. These two mothers, along with the attending support team, generously and enthusiastically supply most of life’s basic necessities. The kid does the rest; suck in some sustenance, process, poop, pee, and puke. Pretty complicated stuff scientifically, but not really any big deal to a newborn. That is, as long as there is always something life sustaining to suck on. The reality is that newborns are completely dependent on the boobs they are faced with. As circumstance would have it, this dependency exists in one form or another all throughout life

We all start out in relatively the same way, as cute, chubby cheeked little putzes. A lifelong struggle for control begins about here. It begins with magic, or at least the illusion of magic. While physiologically impossible there is a phenomenon that has existed throughout the history of mankind: i.e., almost every clueless infant comes equipped with the ability to wrap a full grown adult around its little finger.

"This is so cool, when I cry I get food

and when I cry again they clean up

all that smelly squat stuff." ²

To the kid, this is wonderful, total dependence yet total control. Residing now in a perfect world of delusional self-absorption. What else in life could this bundle of joy possibly need? But hey, this sense of control isn’t the kid’s fault. It’s obviously the adult’s doing. Aren’t they the ones who train themselves to do whatever the kid wants? Who’s subservient now? Hapless parents can’t figure out why the little brat would become so relentlessly demanding.

Wow, what an ironic cause-effect paradox. Parents actually show it how to push their buttons and then get frustrated with those constant annoying cries for attention. Either that, or all babies are born with a sadistic sense of humor that motivates them to intentionally interrupt the parent’s quiet slumber at all hours of the night.

This control conditioning is the first, parent-sponsored, Newborn Sales Pitch Training Course or more specifically, Getting What You Want by Manipulation: 101. This is a perfect testing environment for the kid, because it involves the ultimate captive audience. This little bundle of demand has a rapidly developing brain, so these courses in getting are life’s initial mental steps down life’s bumpy sales pitch road.

This sales pitch training is the key to keeping others occupied with satisfying every personal want and need. It is the beginning of a quest for life’s true purpose, i.e., to maintain an everlasting state of pleasure while completely avoiding any possibility of pain or discomfort. Better known as getting everything you want while never giving up anything—one of the principal purposes of most sales pitches. You have probably heard this misguidedly referred to as happiness. At least this is generally what most of us were pitched as happiness early in life.

In a slightly more advanced elementary sales pitching class, it will eventually learn to cultivate and hone the skills necessary to not only manipulate but to direct, influence and ultimately control in order to satisfy its own selfish purpose. The only obstacle will be an unavoidable human predisposition to fall for the sales pitches of others. And, as sure as it will soon become responsible for dealing with its own squat, it will inevitably succumb to other people’s sales pitch crap.

Sales pitches take on many forms in early life. They run from the sincere, helpful and supportive to the ruthless, maniacal and deceptive. To be sure, sales pitches from these others will be forceful, enticing, relentless and, to a large degree, overwhelming. This is the crap referred to earlier that will undoubtedly produce most of life’s trials and tribulations.

The only thing that really matters at this point is to be properly attended to, and therein lies the sustenance-based needs that no one can live without. And so, as with all newborns, it sucks. Yes, it sucks, therefore it lives. Once again, a reference to the boobs everyone is faced with in order to survive.

Days pass and these fundamental techniques of survival slowly mature into the elementary pain/avoidance and pleasure/gratification attainment techniques.

God, when I don’t suck for a long time I am really uncomfortable, and this squat stuff is even starting to offend me.

Initial up-bringers, through their loving concern and inability to cope with the little rascal’s relentless and boisterous demands, are almost eager to give into these not-so-subtle control techniques. Now, like they say, what goes around comes around. There soon comes a time when the infantile pitching process is rudely countermanded by an adult counter pitch. The earliest experience in being counter pitched is most often provided by the folks (or up-bringers). These up-bringers are equipped with their own not-so-delicate manipulation weapons, not the least of which is deprivation.

The use of the word no becomes one of the most hated, and sometimes feared, tactics that any of us ever encounter. The no response increasingly subjects all tots to a brutal denial of expected comforts. Of course this leads to a rebellion that results in bloodcurdling, high-pitched frequencies in total disproportion to the tiny lungs that produced them. This is what infants consider an effective and perfectly reasonable sales pitch response. This reaction is justifiable because, to it, no is a totally unfair and unjust tactic. After all, these are the same people that set the rules that it would never be denied.

How could they do this to me and why are they hassling me with this crap? They are the ones who taught me that I’m in control, and I get what I want when I want it.

This is where no is a device of seeming torture. It is employed gradually and harmlessly enough at first. The more forceful and frequent the demands are, the more intense the deprivation. But hey, not to worry, it gets even worse.

This deteriorating sense of control slowly evolves into an unthinkable reality. What follows is vigorous and relentless subservience training. This new reality becomes more invasive with each passing day. It gets what it wants gradually evolves into it only gets what they want. This cruelty that tikes must endure is known as discipline. It’s a good thing infants are small. If they possessed any effective degree of strength their initial reactions to most forms of discipline would be to tear the house apart. It’s bad enough they employ tantrums. I believe this is where an old term for parenting originated. Over the years this term evolved from child rear-ing to child rearing, where rear-ing meant a good old whack in the fanny. Many people today even find the term discipline offensive or invasive. Maybe they weren’t properly reared.

Okay, exactly what has gone on here? Well, the fact is, this child is being indoctrinated to a conditioned response. It in turn will instill many conditioned responses in ma, pa, Aunty Nell and, of course, the clueless babysitter. This is the essence of early infant sales pitching.

During this early development of a child’s brain the synapses and neurotransmitter activity begins to form behavioral patterns. These behavioral patterns become almost totally focused on manipulation of others in order to satisfy the insatiable cravings for both necessities and comforts. The employment of these conditioned response patterns is the very foundation of what we all know as manipulation.

Having children of my own, I referred to this manipulation as a parent trap. Later in life, many grow out of this condition of responding to the conditioning of their conditioned responses—or so I’ve heard. I’m pretty sure my kids still haven’t fully divested themselves of this form of manipulation. With apologies, I, being a typical father, can attest to the extraordinary energy and effort my wife put into repairing all of the spoiled child character flaws I implanted into our poor, impressionable children. I still feel like I was duped into doing it. I did give into their sales pitches sometimes, well, maybe most of the time. Okay, okay, almost every time.

Another World

Even while the torture of becoming both dependent and acquiescent manifests itself, another unexpected life-changing day shatters this self-centered realm. It is that day when it is confronted with a horror so great that life itself will be forever affected. Oh my God, my parents and I aren’t the only ones in the world. These are the others that creep into it’s world almost without warning. Whoa, wait a second now. Who were these freaky coochy-cooers? Or, worse yet, Who or what is that other it"? Well, these are the ubiquitous babbling aliens and the annoying little attention stealers.

One of the earliest exhibitions of the threat response is when it is eventually left alone with one or more of these blithering idiots. In pre-speech infant lingo the typical reaction is, My life source has abandoned me! or Quick, give me something to suck on. What does any of this have to do with sales pitches? Well, from now on and for the rest of it’s life, it will be at the mercy of, or at least dependent on, both the humanity and inhumanity of these others. The resulting certainty is that others will eventually want to manipulate it into doing, thinking or, more importantly, believing what they want. Sorry kid, from now on it’s nothing but a brutal and unyielding world of human sales pitch manipulation.

We have all been there. Our circumstances may be varied but the results were the same. In time we all either reluctantly grew accustom to the annoying influence of these bozos or we futilely rebelled and physically resisted.

Fortunately, out of sheer self-preservation, it begins to cultivate a slightly more advanced or sophisticated set of defenses to shield against the annoying manipulation maneuvers of others. Through trial and error, rote learning and boisterous temper tantrums it eventually becomes adept at developing its own sales pitches that generate escape routes from the unrelenting irritation and inattention that others seem to revel in administering. These include the incessant screaming at others who actually believe that holding this precious bundle is desirable or appreciated, or the classic slapping of the hand into the bowl of some vile concoction that baby food makers peddle as palatable. The latter is most effective when maximum trajectory of the darkest colored mush creates a pattern on light colored clothing or curtains. Both plum and beet flavors work really well.

Dissatisfaction can take many forms. When applied often and repeatedly, most others are generally bright enough to give into an infant’s desires. Some more feeble-minded others even become perpetually susceptible to its demands, particularly the babysitters, but only the ones who actually bother to care.

Now I don’t personally remember, but I’ve been told that I would shimmy over the prison bars of my crib in a desperate struggle to elude the evil forces of those who would impose their will on me. I like to interpret this as my personal attempt at the shrewd, You left me alone, what was I supposed to do? or You can’t keep me cooped up, I’m a thrill-seeking adventurer sales pitches. More probably this was my non-linguistic endeavor to communicate displeasure with persistent attempts to stifle my curiosity. Nonetheless, it was certainly one of my more futile attempts at imposing my will on the folks. And imposing one’s will is certainly one of the more overt forms of sales pitching.

Speaking Of An Imposing Poser

Sooner or later, another it enters the scene. A temporary curiosity goes into full operational