The video below is something you MUST watch, from beginning to end. 30 minutes. This video all by itself is a mini-MBA in the highest art of marketing.

It represents the finest of how Social Media *should* be used – to inform, question, reveal, positively provoke, and educate.

It stands in stark contrast to what Social Media is *usually* used for, which is to divide, polarize, anger, inflame and destroy:

 
I can build and advise million-dollar businesses in my sleep. But what intrigues me these days is building billion-dollar businesses.

I no longer think it’s fascinating to sell toothpaste. What fascinates me today is how you harness marketing, in its very highest and best form, to SHIFT THE CULTURE.

I’m fascinated with the following question:

How do you hold conversations that nobody wants to have, because of political correctness or stupidity spasms or hidden agendas?

How do you have those conversations anyway, and to have them successfully?

This is precisely what my book Evolution 2.0 is all about; after all, “where we come from” is one of the most entrenched, backwards, polarized and damaged conversations of the last 200 years. It’s right up there with abortion, gay rights, gun control and immigration.

It’s not only a book about a particular conversation. It’s also a book about *how* we have these conversations.

Sane conversations are LONG overdue.

Today I want to highlight a *sterling* example of such a conversation.

In this clip, Dr. Jordan Peterson of the University of Toronto is interviewed by Cathy Newman. For the last 18 months, Peterson has been on a reasonable, sane, highly articulated crusade against political correctness and postmodern Marxism.

It quickly becomes clear that Cathy Newman is not there to have a sane conversation. She’s out to put words in his mouth and absolutely rip Jordan to shreds.

He does not permit her to do that.

His argument is a difficult one to put forth. It’s nuanced, technical, politically incorrect and easily misunderstood.

Most people, faced with a skilled interviewer trying to rip them to shreds on national TV, would wilt. Or get angry and stomp out.

Jordan maintains his cool. And because he remains calm and sticks to well-backed research, the results are catastrophic for Newman. At one point he calls her out on her hypocrisy and has her completely speechless.

Why? Because she it not doing her job as a journalist *at all.*

You need to watch the above video, because if what you market is NOT lowest common denominator, lizard brain, “just selling toothpaste,” but if like most Planet Perry members you sell something that is good, virtuous, complex, sophisticated and requires thought and intention on the part of your buyer – if you are constantly challenging your audience and summoning them to solve problems at a higher level –

(knowing that what Einstein said was true, which is that you cannot solve a problem at the same level of thinking that created it)

…Then you have to get VERY VERY GOOD at what Peterson is doing on this interview. Which is to fight ignorance, prejudice, oversimplification, and dangerous stereotypes.

With poise and calm and the demeanor of a true woman or gentleman.

You can only do that by being absolutely certain of your facts, bringing truckloads of proof, and only employing truths that are absolutely rock solid. You must articulate your case in a compelling way and you must make the high road MORE appealing than the low road.

This is one of the hardest things in the world that you can ever do. But it’s one of the greatest things that any marketer *should* do.

It’s your OBLIGATION as a sensible human being to do so.

Most marketers are too lazy to do it. And the world is far worse because of it. The world is going to hell in a hand basket and 25% of this can be blamed on LAZY MARKETERS and LAZY MARKETING. Hucksters and con artists and people who can’t be bothered to do their job properly.

I’ve been watching Peterson with fascination for much of the last year. If you can spare some extra time I’d like you to watch a couple more things:

1) In the first 30 minutes of the below video, Peterson explains that he has asked Newman for a re-match – but this time, a reasonable conversation between two humans, rather than a politically-polarized match of the wits, please.

He describes his impulse to skewer Cathy Newman and “get even” and then his realization that to do so would only further fracture an already broken-down conversation.

 
This is the most important thing of all. Creating a De-Militarized Zone where the rare and desperately-needed conversation finally takes place.

2) In this 10-minute clip from Harvard, Peterson explains why the power to persuade and articulate the truth (this is what marketing is SUPPOSED to be) is the highest and noblest of all human skills.

You need to realize that what Peterson is doing here is not only a fascinating case study in the toughest arenas of persuasion, that ***it is absolutely CRUCIAL for the ongoing functioning of a peaceful democratic culture.***

I am not using hyperbole when I say: The future of the world as we know it is absolutely at stake.

We all know how badly polarized the world has become, especially since the Trump-Hillary election. It’s time for this polarization to stop.

And we can’t stop it by simply resolving to be “nice” to each other. We will never stop it by simply biting our lips and not saying anything. We have to have nuanced conversations based on facts and hard truths.

So I am pleading with you: Please, please, please, do not stoop to the lowest common denominator. As I explain in chapter 20 of 80/20 Sales and Marketing, you *can* use 80/20 to “divide and conquer” but instead you should make every effort to completely and thoroughly understand your opponent. So well that you can argue their case better than they can.

If you don’t do that, how could you possibly know whether YOU are right or wrong?

If you are wrong, then you need to be willing to change your mind.

Only then, armed with knowledge, will you be able to discern and articulate to others what is right.

And if you are right and you know you are right, then you need to make it obvious to the whole world how STUPID the alternative is. (And not become the bad guy in the process.)

Some people reading this should not be selling what they are selling.

Many people reading this should not be selling what they’re selling the way they’re selling it.

Some people, by merely existing, are doing more harm than good.

And it’s time for the nonsense to stop.

The well-being of future generations depends on you pursuing the highest and best. Nothing less is worthy. Marketing is a serious business.

Perry Marshall