And The Message Went Out On High ...

The Message Issues Forth!!

n 2025 I believe that people are generally accustomed to the notion that their privacy and ability to stay secluded, at least in the virtual sense, has largely disappeared. With AI and the algorithms of covert data collection, people are used to the rather repugnant notion that hidden entities are massing information about them, including how they tend to think and react under a whole spectrum of circumstances. However, such a perception is relatively recent. If you have lived in Burlington for several years, it’s possible that you have been deliberately and skillfully manipulated. And it’s all perfectly legal. The ethical and moral dimensions of this manipulation, I’ll leave to the judgement of others.

What would you think if you encountered a job description that reads as follows “[He, Senior Director of Client Insights] makes our clients smarter. He leads a team of sharp minds that dig into your data and discover donor insights that grow your revenue. And [he]'s no slouch himself. When he shaves, we've heard he uses Occam's razor.”  You might muse ‘handy fellow for a company to hire to uncover the hidden secrets of its client base’. You might be surprised, and perhaps somewhat troubled when you discovered that the “clients” are not-for-profit enterprises and charitable institutions; organizations like the Toronto Humane Society, the Guelph Hospital, World Vision Canada and the Wycliffe Bible Translators fund to name a few. In other words, his job is to manipulate the inherent tendencies of specific charitable donors in order to convince them to give even more.

The published success factors read like the accomplishments of a 21^st century “artful dodger”. “[The Great Green Envy} tested each appeal against the "instincts" and "feelings" that crept into decision-making. The end result [was] excellent! After our testing, honing, and rollout of successful strategies, we can report that organizational revenue grew by 34% since FY13. Annual donor counts have increased by 9% and Average Gift remained stable despite an influx of new donors into the file!  Concerning income-to-cost, we have grown [the] return year over year. Overall, [the] work with … was accomplished thanks to a strong understanding of the pain-points in their donor file and a commitment to testing. … we are engaged in optimizing [the client website] landing pages to improve conversion from visit to gift; and building a new donor Welcome Kit to improve a new donor's time to second gift and increase retention.”

It’s a bit problematic when you consider the specific universe in which these talents are applied and the accomplishments praised. Perhaps it’s consistent with the reality that charities are ‘big business’ today. But at least for me there seems to be a slippery slope appearing. Even if the cause is commendable – and the ones cited certainly are – it is still an exercise of manipulation with those being maneuvered being completely unaware of the operation. Let’s take this a step further. You may think that the talents being displayed in this unlikely forum are those most useful and most valued in the political arena; for a campaign manager or strategist, for example. How valuable would it be to a prospective candidate to have someone who could mine the oceans of available data and/or design custom data collection mechanisms and would not only provide the candidate with a unique perspective on the wants and interests of the electorate but could actually help influence that electorate through carefully directed and targeted messaging. Let us suppose that the team of candidate and campaign strategist/manager is even more intimate – partners in both life and career, with personal decisions always “tested” against the parallel considerations of long-term political ambitions.

 What would be the tell-tale characteristics of such a ‘team’? First, I would imagine that there must be a total commitment to the overall objective. This would involve a tacit understanding that life sacrifices, even family ones, would be made so that useful appearances could be preserved. Secondly, there would be an ‘a priori’ order to their relationship; a quiet but very firm understanding of relative roles and boundaries. The strategist-manager would be in the background and publicly invisible but would be ‘the first amongst equals’. The candidate would not be an empty puppet. Indeed, the stronger and more apparently autonomous, the more compelling the public offering. There would be a long history of positions that reflect a populist view reflecting an understanding that extreme views tend to alienate. There might also be (particularly given the Strategist-Manager’s professional position) a strong “faith” element to the relationship. However, this would always remain in the background given the possibility for polarization of the electorate. Considering the Strategist-Manager’s talents at data-mining as well as the Candidate’s populist persona, it is likely that there would be a well-established presence on all social media platforms and a history of their effective use as communications and data collection media. The Candidate could be a “crusader” given the broad range of popular causes and appeals available but this would be a very carefully selected position and the “mission” would be comfortably accepted.

There are a host of additional aspects and behavioral traits that could be noted but you should recognize the pattern. If you have lived in the Burlington community for a time, you should be able to put a face and a brand to the characteristics. Without going down psychological/clinical paths where I am not qualified to go, just this very barebones outline should be recognizable. And it explains a great deal. If much of what you have witnessed over the past fifteen years smacks of rehearsed performance rather than natural or spontaneous reaction, if there seems to be a tendency for rhetoric over actual communications and if the focus appears to be more form than substance, then you have landed at the same conclusions as me. What you decide to do with it is, of course, entirely up to you. But as October 2026 draws ever closer, I shall be publishing frequent reminders.

Note: All the marketing “bumpf” is taken directly from the website of the actual company that employs the Strategist.  The name “Great Green Envy” is, of course, fictitious but it is close. To the best of our knowledge the Strategist is still employed with the company and is still performing the duties outlined. Similarly, the Candidate will always, by the very nature of the beast, be the Candidate. But over the last fifteen years has also perfected her performance in roles as the Incumbent.