"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." -Friedrich Nietzsche

There's always a frame around the things we hear, whether it be intentional or unintentional. Take the media, for example. There are only five or six mega corporations that disseminate information to us about what is going on in the world, and really, if you watch much TV, you'll see that they're really not giving out much real news at all. There's a bottom line to consider and jeopardizing the corporation's profitability is not an option.

Television is a huge part of our lives. According to the A.C. Nielsen Co., the average American watches more than 4 hours of TV each day or 28 hours a week, or two months a year. By the time you're 65, that's nine full years of television.

Fortunately for the advertisers and maybe unfortunately for us, the same thing that happens when we hear a story, happens when we watch TV. Our critical minds shut down. We absorb what they want us to hear with little resistance. In other words, we become passive and allow the message to sink in and carry us away. It sucks us in, alters our consciousness and that is why it is so absolutely powerful. Another reason is it uses so many of our senses, it engages us fully.

The news doesn't really bother to inform us anymore, opting instead to entertain. Is it possible that this is happening on purpose? Lao-Tzu observed that, "People are difficult to govern because they have too much knowledge." Has this also been observed by those currently in power?

I overheard a conversation in line at the supermarket. A young woman, probably around seventeen, was looking at an entertainment magazine talking a blue streak to her father about who's dating who, and what this one's wearing and why such and such is going to be a great movie. She could name every one of the celebrities from front to back. And after a few minutes of this the father simply said, 'Do you know who the Secretary of State is?' She didn't. And this wasn't a kid. This was an older teenager.

The girl was absolutely unashamed of the fact that she didn't know. Willfully ignorant. 'What difference does that make in my life?' she said. And what does this illustrate? Increasingly, the media diverts our attention from what is truly important and funnels it to starlets in rehab, or sharks off the coast of Florida or who is in rehab. All kinds of things keep us in an altered state so that we don't object very loudly.

At the same time that infotainment keeps us numb and uninformed, politics uses the concept of 'terror' to keep us complacent. With a slight of hand, they pass the Patriot Act chiseling away at our civil liberties, but the populace accepts it without much struggle because it's keeping us "safe" from "terror".

How can you use diversion in business to help with your sales? More importantly, how can these persuasion skills be used to protect ourselves when others are trying to persuade us?

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Kenrick Cleveland teaches techniques to earn the business of wealthy clients using persuasion. He runs public and private seminars and offers home study courses and coaching programs in persuasion techniques.