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A fact that has been
focus grouped is no longer a fact, it is an opinion. The only fact that can be determined by a
poll is which among several prepackaged opinions a test population prefers. Facts (to use the popular marketing
terminology of the present moment) “do not scale”. They do not fail to be facts if they are
unpopular. They do not become greater or
more factual inasmuch as opinion proves to favor them. Because they do not, the tools of marketing
can neither produce nor arrive at truths.
In fact, a Democracy of polling and focus groups begins to
believe that truths are an undemocratic illusion. We have entered a market driven age in which
vast resources are available (for a price), and, except for a tiny minority of
specially trained persons, only opinions can possibly result from their use. Those opinions can only compete for market
share in the fashion of all other products.
A Democracy based upon marketing methods can only arrive at dysfunction
or empty ritual… or, as is the case at the moment, a struggle to determine
which of the two will prevail. The only
question is which will win out in the end.
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