The Fuel Hierarchy

The Fuel Hierarchy (LOD)
The Fuel Hierarchy Choosing motivation that lasts — zoom into a rung to see how each one works Practical Propaganda · The Multiverse School BURNS CLEAN 1 SPITE Your most durable fuel — reach for it first. How it burns • Reach for this first: it's the most durable motivation you can run on. • Anchor it to someone's ACTIONS, or to a specific person who did real harm. • It lasts a lifetime, costs you nothing to carry, and never leaves you depleted. • Self-check: notice how you feel when someone you oppose loses ground — • it costs you nothing, leaves you no weaker, and never feels 'finished'. • Because it doesn't run out or drain you, it sustains long campaigns. • When you want work that outlasts the news cycle, build on this. 2 HEROISM Burns hot — but plan for it to run out. How it burns • Powerful but short-lived: you throw yourself in hard, then burn out just as hard. • It's powered by acting on behalf of someone else — keep that in view. • Stories like the Epstein case rally people across the spectrum: real victims • to protect → it casts your audience as the heroes. Effective, but tiring. • Plan for it: it needs steady external validation, so pair it with spite to last. 3 VICTIMHOOD Drains you and stalls action — use sparingly. How it burns • Use sparingly: it drains energy and quietly tells people to stand still. • Casting YOURSELF as a victim frames you as less powerful — avoid it. • We frame people as victims when we want them to STOP — so reserve it for that. BURNS DIRTY Octalysis: which drives • Spite → Loss & Avoidance: the drive not to lose ground to someone you oppose. • Heroism → Epic Meaning & Calling: the sense of a cause bigger than yourself. • Victimhood → Ownership & Possession: a defensive, hold-your-ground posture. • Use this map as your fuel-selection step in the Discovery phase. How to make people act • TO MOVE PEOPLE TO ACT: help them see they are NOT powerless victims — • and that there are OTHERS, genuinely vulnerable, they can choose to protect. • CHOOSING YOUR ISSUE: pick something you feel GENUINE spite about — • not a mild preference, not powerless frustration — • but upset in an 'I'm going to do something about this' way. Ellul: aim for action, not agreement • Ellul argued propaganda's goal is orthopraxy (provoking ACTION), • not orthodoxy (changing what people believe). • That's exactly why FUEL/motivation matters more than argument — • you're choosing what will move people to act, not what will persuade them. EXERCISE · Exercise 1a · The Spite Audit · 10 min — zoom into a step STEP 1 · Practice issue Write the FIRST issue that comes to mind. Use it as today's low-stakes practice issue. STEP 2 · Real campaign Write the one that actually keeps you up at night. Star it — that's your real campaign candidate. Output: two clearly named issues in your scratchpad. STEP 3 · Spite check Is it action-oriented spite ('I'll do something'), rather than powerless anger or victimhood? If not, pick again. Spite is the cleanest-burning fuel; victimhood and impotent anger burn dirty and run out.

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