LOUD PEP TALK HIDDEN MESSAGE: YOU’RE A LOSER

A pep talk has a particular place and time. It’s not normal conversation, it’s communication on steroids.

Listening to a pep talk gives two distinct reactions: Get hyped up, or tune out.

A third response is understanding what all the noise is about. This is the one that takes special experiences. Like what, you ask?

If you played high school football on a team with a losing record every year, like I did, then you’re heard plenty of pep talks.

The standouts? A first year coach addressed the team before a game and brought in his dad.

“This is the most important game of my life because it’s the first time my dad will see a game I coached,” he said.

His dad cried, the coach cried, some kids cried. Turned out an emotional family reunion talk wasn’t the best choice for a team that needed a boost. We got stomped that Friday night.

At halftime of another game, our version of Vince Lombardi let us have it.

“You just don’t care about the game, or about winning. All you care about is the dance after the game,” he fumed.

We weren’t thinking about the post-game dance, but after that we were. And we got stomped in the second half the way we were stomped in the first half.

If you’re giving a sports pep talk, make it about sports. And you don’t need to make it sound like a screaming shit-fit.

Favorite Pep Talk

“We’re here to play a game. Just a game. But it’s more than just a game. We’re here together to learn what we’re all about. Do we learn? Listen? Do we take what we learn and put it into action? Let’s try.

“Do you like having fun? I like fun. Let’s have fun playing our game. It’s not about winning and losing, but playing hard and having fun. And what’s more fun, winning or losing? Play hard and that takes care of itself. Let’s go. On three. One. Two. Three. Bulldogs.”

That was the talk I gave my Rec-league teams for ten years. They were always Bulldogs unless the team objected. But no barking, yelling, or screaming. It’s an appeal to their better selves.

What happens in the confined space of a locker room resonates for years. It’s not the winning or losing we remember, but how we felt. And the winning and losing.

A wrestling coach cut to the chase before a big match.

“Just don’t get pinned,” he said before I went out against the hated rival Marshfield Pirates. Their best guy had already beat our good guys, so I was the new meat in the fire.

How A Yelling, Screaming, Pep Talk Works

If you’ve heard politicians work the stump, then you know it gets loud. Does it sound like Chicken Little warning about the sky falling? There’s a good reason why.

The democratic ideal assumes that, if a variety of propagandists are free to compete continuously and publicly, the ideas best for society will win out in the long run. This outcome would require that a majority of the general populace be reasonably well-educated, intelligent, public-spirited, and patient, and that they not be greatly confused or alienated by an excess of communication. 

How confusing is for people listening to speeches that sound like a fire alarm? One thing you can’t scream in a crowded theater?

“FIRE.”

When the equivalent of yelling fire in a theater comes through cable news every time you turn on the television, do you start looking for a fire to put out?

During a calm stroll in the wood, one walker asked another, “Why do people yell so much?”

(It was either two strangers, or my wife and I. Since she doesn’t like blog attention, it was two strangers. Wink, wink.)

I drew on my pep talking past for an answer.

“I’ve been yelled at by experts, from parents, to coaches, to Army Drill Sergeants. My dad was a Marine Drill Instructor and knew how to do it, but chose not to.

“Getting yelled at is a call to action, which is the reason pep talks can get loud. A coach wants to fire you up, to got out and lay down your best effort. Sometimes it works, but not with a poor pep talker.

“Our Republican friends don’t yell any more than our Democrat friends, right? But when they do, I listen to the tone. If they sound and look like they’re getting their hemorrhoids ripped out with a pair of needle nose pliers, it’s a problem.

“But that’s their act, and they know their constituents. Working for a vote in South Carolina must mean squealing like a stuck hog.

“The problem comes when soft men try and sound hard. It’s a fake anger used to satisfy their base, their network, their contributors. And it works. They wouldn’t do it if it didn’t work.

“However, their overheated rhetoric comes with unintended consequences.

“The concept of unintended consequences is one of the building blocks of economics. Adam Smith’s “invisible hand,” the most famous metaphor in social science, is an example of a positive unintended consequence. Smith maintained that each individual, seeking only his own gain, “is led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention,” that end being the public interest. “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, or the baker, that we expect our dinner,” Smith wrote, “but from regard to their own self interest.”

“Guys tuned into he screamers hear a call to action. They dress up in their military surplus drag and go out on parade strapped with their new weapon. It’s a feel-good moment for them, a strange site for others.

“When something goes wrong, the screamers like to claim ignorance. They use inflammatory speeches to motivate their fans. Their fans get over-revved and act out.

“Part of the ignorance on display comes from the top. A leader who can’t understand science, honesty, loyalty, and basic decency, is going to attract the same sort of people. What we didn’t know before is how many of those people there were. But now they step forward in the new abnormal.

“Don’t take my guns; don’t make me wear a mask; don’t provide women’s healthcare; don’t raise my taxes. If you can stand and scream that message and all it’s variables over and over and over, you might be ready for a Fox News audition.”

Voter Registration

The most effective message I’ve seen all year, maybe all time, comes from the NBA LA Clippers’ coach Doc Rivers.

Check out his video and make plans.