Trick Five:How would you like it if...

This trick is used a lot on tv.

Instead of arguing the case for extra money to be spent on mental health issues, we are presented with Prince William confiding the terrible pain which he felt when his mother died. The fact that he spoke at all is refreshing, of course, because mental issues are important. Of course they are.
But when we identify with the suffering someone as famous as the Prince, all argument flies out of the window.
We are presented almost every night on the tv news with “the crisis in the NHS”.
Instead of arguing the case, we see a pretty young Mum with her baby on her knee telling how the NHS failed her.

Who can argue with that?

Old soldiers sit on the street, with their heads in their hands. They are not only homeless but they have terrible images flashing in their heads too. They have been diagnosed with PTSD.
They provide a very strong argument which can certainly be used politically: it's Austerity isn't it!
Victimhood is the product of Trick Five. Victims win you the argument.

And it is dangerous too.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks explains in his book (Not in God's Name) how victims get angry with the people who put them there. Then they dehumanise the people who put them there. They then exterminate the people who put them there. Only by now they are no longer people – just subhuman vermin.
Need for examples?
IRA? Palestinians? Israelis? Ku Klux Klan? Muslim terrorists? Nazis? Fascists? All of these groups see themselves as victims of one sort or another.

Nevertheless, when used responsibly and wisely, Trick Five is very effective.

Advertising people know it well.

Placing a victim centre stage is very powerful. 

So is alcohol.