This week the FBI disclosed a background check they did on
Steve Jobs in order for him to receive a job on President H.W. Bush’s Export
Council. The most reveling part of this report is that it states, “Several
individuals questioned Mr. Job’s honesty stating that Mr. Jobs will twist the
truth and distort reality in order to achieve his goals”(Washington Post 1).
While a lot of people will perceive this characteristic as a bad thing, unfortunately,
this is exactly what a successful politician does, and in truth it is exactly the
tactic that a rhetorician occasionally employs in order to get their audience
to act in a desired fashion. It is a fact that everybody knows a politician
will pick and choose which facts to admit or not in order to portray his or her
position in the best light. This propensity to bend the truth is seen as a bad
thing, but why? I believe that it is because people
believe they can make their decisions based on every single fact that surrounds
their decision. But can people really see and appreciate every factor that is involved
in a decision? The true answer is no, and more importantly do rhetoricians really
lie? No they just “distort reality” in such a way so as to persuade their
listeners to act, or in some cases not act, in the manner the rhetorician is
advocating. This is a daily process, and
without it most people would not be willing to commit to certain ideas or
actions. Yet when the process is noted, it attracts resentment. I understand
that most people resent it because it makes them feel like they were taken
advantage of, but the question really lies in whether they are better off after
they accepted the rhetorician’s advice than before? If so, then why is there
even a need to run this article?
Washington Post 1: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/fbis-steve-jobs-file-he-will-distort-reality--to-achieve-his-goals/2012/02/09/gIQAWJfU1Q_story.html?hpid=z3
I think that the idea of only telling facts that are good and beneficial is something all of us do. We distort stories to make are selves look good, we don’t tell people our annoying habits or dirty secrets when we meet them. We like to put on a front that we are more normal and put together then we know we are. Politicians take it to another level, but those comments are obvious. Any human being is going to do that. At a job interview you aren’t going to tell your possible boss that you drink every weekend and you are terrified of commitment. Politicians are no more than products that are self-advertising, and they will tell you anything to sell themselves to you.
ReplyDeletePersonally, there is probably nothing that I hate more than being lied to. It just really bothers me since trust is so important to me. But, the context which I am speaking of is very different from the context that rhetoricians and politicians are in. Their lying or "distorting reality" actually has a legitimate purpose. Not that this makes it completely okay, but it does excuse them a little bit because it is basically a part of their job.
ReplyDeleteI find that a lot of times it's sometimes really tricky to discern--both in myself and others--when I'm merely highlighting certain aspects of a situation or when I'm actually distorting reality. (I'm fine with the former, and find it's necessary in ALL communication, but have qualms about the latter.) It's seldom an easy thing to discern, and I've been known to spend far too long parsing, say, an email I'm about to send just to make sure I've represented things accurately (albeit briefly). The result is that most things I write end up being pretty long. :/
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