The Myth of a Single Agenda

By Deane Barker •

Also known as: The Simple Perspective Instinct

We assume that the opposing side has a single reason for wanting or not wanting something, when in reality there might be multiple agendas working together. Perhaps no single agenda is compelling enough, but the combination of multiple “lesser” agendas is enough to influence behavior.

Examples

Many people have stated definitively that the Internet was invented by the US government to ensure communications in the event of a nuclear attack. In reality, the Internet was “invented” by many different people with many different agendas. There were no-doubt some people concerned about post-apocalyptic communications and who saw the technology as allowing for that, but they were a minority of the massive aggregation of people and agendas that contributed to the evolution of what become the Internet.

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