Boardroom In Black

Debugging blog integration with social networks. Please excuse the mess. Post will be deleted.

Am experimenting with a few WordPress modules, so apologies if the feed does some wonky things.

By the way – I’ve now started a Glossary section on the site, where definitions useful in the context of discussion on this blog will be posted. Take a peek – it will significantly grow over time.

I intentionally let with the chin in the Creating and Consuming article, poking at various concepts many never examine beyond the socially acceptable norms. While I enjoy a smart ass and jovial tone in the general case, a much more precise, scientific context is needful as background material for those new to this (most everyone encountering this article).

Within the context of the Church of Satan, “Lesser Magic” can be defined as social engineering or manipulation of people to further one’s own ends. Anton LaVey wrote an entire book on the subject, and his in home “Witch School” predates and proceeds the Church itself. His own life (and the lives of many of his heroes) is a textbook example of this.

What we’re going to talk about here is the actual objective mechanisms behind what can be called Lesser Magic, as currently understood by hard science today.

“Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is an approach to changing socially useful behaviors that employs scientifically established principles of learning to bring about these changes” (Kearney 19). ABA is the only objectively verifiable school of psychology, and is considered a hard, and not a social one. The basics are actually quite easy to understand for the reasonably intelligent, but even the definition found above contains some very precisely defined terms (that are not quite correctly defined by their common usage).

My time is short, and writing out an ABA 101 post is both boring for me and redundant to do – there are plenty of “layman” introductory sources to learn these things from. My current, in print and redily accessable (and cheap) favorite here is quoted above – Albert J. Kearney’s “Understanding Applied Behavior Analysis: An Introduction to ABA for parents, teachers, and other professionals”. Wonderful, yet short, introduction.

Go get the book – he introduces these concepts far better then I can, and why reinvent the wheel anyways? If you are cheap or can’t afford the book, google Applied Behavior Analysis. I don’t care if you deem me full of shit and this blog useless – this book belongs on the shelf of every Satanist. That’s a plain Amazon link above – I don’t need your money.

Get a feel for ABA, and suspend your uninformed opinion as to it’s validity. Next couple of posts will rely on this information.

This context requires some precise definitions to be comprehensible, even at a basic level.

(Edit: In private conversation, a prominent member of the CoS reminds me that the team is Lesser Magic, and not Lesser Black Magic. This is a failure in editing on my part, and has been corrected (and the catch appreciated))

(2nd Edit: one more correction became necessary, which actually illustrates the mechanism of Behavior Shaping via Rule-Governed (or Verbal) Behavior. Bonus question – can you describe this mechanism?)

(all cynicism and sarcasm with little humor makes Richard Cerno seem like a bigger asshole then he really is. And thus we find our illustrious protagonist making an earnest plea to a cosmetics company…)

Dear Lush Cosmetics,

Your company, on more than one occasion, has been referred to as a “lifestyle company” – a company who’s marketing and advertising vision sells not a product, but an over-priced vision of your customers to themselves, perfectly packaged in bath bomb form. As a long time veteran in online marketing and advertising, I understand this well. We are all unique snowflakes, just like everybody else, and one can be both edgy and unique when one buys The Designated Product™. Your products are indulgences, and as we all know from history, various organizations in the western world have done quite well for themselves by selling indulgences. I commend you from the bottom of my heart.

Transparent marketing aside, I rather enjoy a number of your products. You see, I have a confession to make….I am a heterosexual, alpha male, bubble bath whore. I love soaking in the tub, listening to Terror Transmission or Underworld Amusements in the background, letting the cares of the day slip away. Sometimes, I listen to big band jazz or 80′s Heavy Metal while savoring the sweet and savory smells your perfumed bath products emit. Sometimes, my bathroom remains silent, with only thoughts of violence to keep me company. What a glorious indulgence a bubble bath is for me! Alas, for all the pleasure I derive from your products, there is one thing that often stands between myself and hot water bliss.

Glitter.

Most of your products contain glitter, and this is simply unacceptable to me. Glitter is useless. Glitter is pointless. Glitter adds nothing to the bath experience. Glitter is not biodegradable, and fucks your whole illusion of enviornmentally friendly products (which is bullshit anyways, but hey, just trying to help…). Glitter is either a shitty movie or the uniform of the stripper, and is rarely more than this. Most men would prefer not to have this useless additive wedged in our nether regions.

I am a Male Bubble Bath Whore, and I am not alone. There are many of us, many men who enjoy a bubble bath. Get rid of the glitter, and you’ll open up a whole new market for yourselves.

Thank you for your time.

Your friend in marketing and advertising,

Richard Cerno

Of all the commercials I’ve seen, Hulu commercials are, by far, my all time favorite. Here’s four of them.

Ha, ha, only serious. “Hulu. An evil plot to destroy the world. Enjoy.”

(No, I don’t currently work for hulu, but damn, I admire this ad campaign…)