Official narrative:
Perception management is a popularised term first coined by the US military. The US DoD defines it as:
Actions to convey and/or deny selected information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence their emotions, motives, and objective reasoning as well as to intelligence systems and leaders at all levels to influence official estimates, ultimately resulting in foreign behaviors and official actions favorable to the originator's objectives. In various ways, perception management combines truth projection, operations security, cover and deception, and psychological operations. "Perception" is defined as the "process by which individuals select, organize, and interpret the input from their senses to give meaning and order to the world around them". This definition overlaps with the higher-order perceptual processes as defined biologically. Components of perception include the perceiver, target of perception, and the situation.
A more pragmatic narrative:
Basically perception management can be described as con artistry, flannel, shining someone on, bullshitting, having someone over, pulling the wool over their eyes, being a fly man, selling London bridge or passing bad cheques.
Most successful cons can be summed up in the following way; the most important factor in a con is that the target believes that they and they alone are in some way special. This is generally achieved through indicators of favour or in less floral terms - blowing smoke up their ass. In the business of information brokering, the target must have confidence in the fact that they are privvy to information that nobody else has access to. This may or may not be true. In addition the information may or may not be factual. These factors are not important in terms of the con being successful. The most important detail is that they actually believe that they have an opportunity which has not been extended to others. This forms much of the work done in the field of stock brokering and HR recruitment. In order to achieve substantial sales the middle man (or woman, or non binary individual ..sigh) must keep both parties in the dark. If either get the idea that the intermediary is an ardent snake oil salesman, the con is right up shit creek, sans paddle. Consequently most of the work in perception management is preparatory in nature. Additionally once the con has been delivered and depending on the nature of it, there may be a requirement to protect the narrative. This would generally be handled by those specialising in so called 'security' as opposed to perception management. This involves making it clear to the victim of the con that they better go along with it, or else. This in turn may require extensive perception management in relation to the covert equivalent of shrieking "Oh yes it is" or "Oh no it isn't" or possibly even "It's behind you". In the clandestine world, the half baked application of turgid and vapid cons is not discouraged because the more there are, the more need for pantomime dames to be running around uttering the aforementioned, faux hormonal exclamations.
Possibly the most tangible example of perception management can be seen in the mainstream narratives associated with warfare. Over time, the need to secure the narratives associated with justification for war has become an industry in itself. The events of September the 11th 2001 have become a mainstay of perception management. Anyone questioning the entirely low brow, half arsed story of a rag-tag band of Al-Qaeda desperados bringing the entirety of the USA to a grinding halt, can expect a whole load of bizarre events suddenly appearing in their lives. Fortunately there are those who frankly do not care and would rather put up with such mealy mouthed pantomime damery than ever admit to believing in amateur pilots pulling off maneuvers that would put Luke Skywalker to shame.
History is replete with major incidents of perception management. From the suicidal lemmings narrative and the 20 year Khufu tomb construction to fake eggs from China and a virus so deadly you have to be tested to know if you have it or not. Unfortunately the human condition is predisposed to cognitive dissonance and the heinous illness of 'go along to get along'. This makes for a global population who can be predictably hoodwinked and made victims of some truly spurious confidence tricks. Fortunately last orders has been called at the bar of the Bullshitters Arms and humanity is now blanking yet another lock-in and stumbling out into the crisp night air of the age of Aquarius. The only problem being that everyone is so shitfaced from the watered down, overpriced booze that they risk choking to death on their own vomit before they've even managed to order a kebab.
