Words — Part 3 Vehicles of Change

So politicians and activists have a problem in a democracy. How do you create popular support for a complex issue? Everyone cares about health, happiness, and education. But should everyone want Obamacare, an end to factory farming, and a voucher program for charter schools?

Complex explanations take time to tell other people. “Obamacare mandates all insurance policies cover these 10 essential health benefits and can’t drop people or raise premiums if they get sick. This ensures everyone in America is guaranteed an essential level of coverage”. Try putting that on a poster.

“Obamacare is better care”. Without getting lost in the insignificant details, you can just summarize with a biased word. “Better” is well better; case closed. The most convincing arguments are condensed as much as possible leaving out any qualifiers like “most” or “likely”. Qualifiers are weak to be left for scientists aiming for accuracy. Confidence and conviction are needed to be convincing. Precision and truth are traded for effect pushing you to support the agenda.

“Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it.” — Karl Marx

The exact same thing happens with advice. Though instead of pushing some personal agenda, the person might actually have your best interests in mind. “Follow your passion”. “Be yourself”. “Don’t care what others think”. These are all horrible ideas if you actually follow them to their conclusion. But they aren’t meant to accurately reflect reality and a good way of living. They are meant to in a few words push you into some action. They are often said to sway your decisions in the right direction. Convincing but false arguments to pull you to the other side.

The problem is all the qualifiers and precise definitions are missing. The push to change us embeds incorrect and toxic ideas in our minds. For the past several years, I have been picking this toxic sludge of hyper-condensed advice out of my mind and seeking actual details. If people could just be more precise in their language and meanings, then maybe we all wouldn’t be so misguided.