Triggering Words
The final part of the "pep talk" is the response, which involves the triggering of this release, and the directing of it.

Triggering the release is a matter of pacing and timing. The audience has to be sufficiently aroused and emotionally engaged in order for the spark to ignite the fire. Most of our language to describe triggering emphasizes degree and extremity: "last straw," "final insult," "crossed the line, " "reached our limit, " " breaking point, " " had enough ... .. had too much," "more than we could bear," and so on.

Our language suggests that the emotional intensity surpasses our rational powers of restraint: the adrenaline is flowing, we are out of control, we can't hold back, we've reached the breaking point.

If a threat is removed, or when a danger passes, we are relieved: we "breathe a sigh of relief" and the tensions are relaxed.

Specific triggering devices include urgency words ("Now!" "Today") and the skilled use of questions ("Are you going to let them get away with that?") geared to elicit expected answers ("NO!"). This tactic can fail if the questions are poorly worded, poorly timed, or if the audience isn't sufficiently bonded or aroused; but, in favorable conditions, this common tactic is effective.

Most people have had some kind of personal experience listening to the build-up and triggering in the traditional "pep talks" given by athletic coaches. (Usually ending by directing the team to "go-get-em!")

Such experiences are examples in miniature of what the political persuader can do on a grand scale in a more sophisticated version.

Hitler's propaganda machinery, for example, has provided us with horrible examples of what can happen when a skilled political persuader manipulates people. The Nazis originally seized control by using provocateurs and faked incidents (setting fire to the Reichstag) to create "horror stories" against the Communists. A few years later, Hitler started a conditioning propaganda campaign against the Jews. At first, it was low-key, exploiting long-existing anti-Semitism. Little by little, the attacks kept escalating, until the climactic outburst of Kristalnacht, the night when "spontaneous" mobs throughout Germany broke the windows of stores and homes owned by Jews. Eventually, this would lead to the killing of six million Jews in the concentration camps of the Holocaust.

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