Exploiting the imbalance between appearance and reality
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from Threshold
Exploiting the imbalance between appearance and reality
On June 12, 1987, President Reagan made this appeal at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin
Secretary General Gorbachev. If you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.
This speech was aimed at the people of Western Europe
1. A political system that allows people to move freely
2. A system that tries to confine citizens with barbed wire and concrete
Emphasizing the imbalance and releasing the power to break it down
Stirring up the obvious to make it meta-cognitive
What is this all about...?
When Reagan made a similar challenge to Yuri Andropov in 1983, it had little effect. But when Gorbachev declared that he would liberalize the Soviet Union while there was a discrepancy between his words and reality, the gap between the two became significant, and Reagan exploited it.