What is MOPE

“Ask yourself why totalitarian dictatorships find it necessary to pour money and effort into propaganda for their own helpless, chained, gagged slaves, who have no means of protest or defense. The answer is that even the humblest peasant or the lowest savage would rise in blind rebellion were he to realize that he is being immolated, not to some incomprehensible ‘noble purpose’, but to plain, naked, human evil.”
— Ayn Rand

Dear CIGAs,

Here are the rules of MOPE:

1. MOPE must be carefully timed:

a. The communication must reach the audience ahead of the competing truth.
b. A MOPE campaign must begin at the optimum moment.
c. A MOPE theme must be repeated, but not beyond some point of diminishing effectiveness

2. MOPE must label events and people with distinctive phrases or slogans such as “gold bugs” and “carry trade.”

a. They must evoke desired responses which the audience previously possessed.
b. They must be easily learned.
c. They must be utilized again and again, but only in appropriate situations.
d. They must be boomerang-proof.