MARK | 2005-12-18
In response to my "Belated Reply to Peter," Mark says,
"Bob, being in sales for 20+ years I have found that posing a statement in the form of a question makes a point go over easier than just blurting out a fact or opinion. If you make a statement YOU are making the statement, whereas if you ask a question, the answer is being made by the OTHER PERSON and that makes it HIS statment, not yours."
"For example, I could make the statment, "Black inner city neighborhoods are unsafe for white people to be in," and the person I'm talking to says to himself, "Now that was a racist statement". Off he goes without even thinking about what I've just said. "
"Whereas if I pose it as a question, "Have you ever wondered why, when you and your wife and kids are driving thru a black neighborhood and you see black guys selling drugs or walking around drinking beer and acting half out of their mind, you instinctively fear for you and your family's safety? But when you drive thru a white neighborhood — even a POOR white neighborhood, you don't fear for your family's safety? I wonder why do you think that is?"
"The person can still say, "Now that was a racist statement — but in his mind, since you've posed a question rather than a statment and have painted a series of word pictures, he has to answer it on some level, verbally or not. "
Well, Mark, nobody ever declared me infallible, least of all me.
We need a team effort here.
This is not sales, this is revolutionary politics. Your socratic advice would be good even in regular politics, but this is not regular politics. Nonetheless, yours is advice that WORKS.
That has to be useful be useful to us or we are runningalong on some kind of Wordist Bobism.
The big difference is that in sales or regular politics you have to aim at making your prospect like you.
IN MY OPINION we must aim a lot more at shock value. We should let someone know KNOW that accusing you of mass murder is not something you will tamely put up with the way The Greatest Generation so bravely did.
You cannot put MY race is the form of a question. Then you're back to the rabbit-like theoretical discussion of THE white race while every non-white would be considered nuts if he took this genocide the way we do.
The man Peter talked to sent him a nice note. Did Peter make his point?
Maybe not completely, but he has another chance. Maybe I wouldn't.
Would my attack have alienated the man so much that Peter would never have a chance a chance to make the same points more gently?
These are questions Peter will have to answer for himself.
We have here a professional salesman, a political pro, and Peter, who is out there DOING what we theorizing about.
"One experiment is worth a hundred Expert Opinions."
What we probably need is try more of your approach in some cases, but we must ALWAYS realize that our goal is to get across the few simple truths that I have spent decades hammering out.
Peter, we need you to get in here again.