Dr. Alan Levinson: THE EVOLUTION OF SPIN means THE GROWTH OF FICTION

[paineinthearse]

http://www.conyersblog.us/

Monday, August 15th, 2005

First ConyersBlog Guest Post



A heartfelt debt of gratitude goes to the “Honorable” John Conyers, for providing both an ear and a forum for Americans to verbalize their issues and concerns. It is a astonishing in this day and age to have this kind of access. Thank You!

I am genuinely humbled and deeply appreciative of being asked to ‘Guest Post’ on this site.

(True Americans explore, consider, and compromise…
True autocrats disregard, presume, and stipulate.)

THE EVOLUTION OF SPIN means THE GROWTH OF FICTION

Politicians use spin to drive agenda, minimize damage or negative results, accentuate positive accounts or reports, or imply some form of connection between events. Spin allows its’ user to pursue, convince, and create a sense of connection between like-minded individuals. The benefit of spin is 3-fold. First; spin establishes and promotes a belief system that is often contrary or parallel to the truth. Second; spin confuses and muddles actual facts, obfuscating them within a torrent of words. Finally, spin, coupled with a dose of ‘earnest sincerity’ can effortlessly lure the less judicious individual into its grasp. An individual leaning towards a particular perspective will, with just a tweaking of spin, fall all over themselves in order to be part of the ‘in crowd”.

The use of spin and ‘slight-of-hand’ though common to all politicians, has taken on immense proportions during this administration. As a result, the term ‘Orwellian’ has become ubiquitous with George W. Bush and those around him. We all use spin to present ourselves in the best light possible. In baseball, a batter who goes 0 for 4 might say “I hit the ball hard every time up. A president might say “We have reduced the deficit”, when reality shows it to be rising, albeit more slowly. But spin can take on a life all its own. A spun fact must be backed with certain information in order to make the spin seem plausible. To make it work, facts must be explored, then categorized as either acceptable or not. Facts that corroborate your goal are employed as part of the spin, while other less desirable facts are discarded. This style of information management is universal, and generally stands up to scrutiny.

Politicians never want to admit failure because failure becomes a permanent addition to their résumé. But at some point there is just no getting past the facts. In 1990, “Read my lips, no new taxes” was no longer ‘spin-able’. George Herman Walker Bush had no choice but to acknowledge the failure of his policy. The result was obvious as he had to raise taxes in order to save the economy. His presidency lasted only one term. To become “Orwellian”, spin must progress on a course in direct conflict with fact. Spin evolves into a ‘quasi’ fact of its own, defendable only by further spin, and the narrowing of factual information to back it up. The ‘spinner’ who is unwilling to acknowledge that fact no longer substantiates the proclamation, must eventually invent more spin, for fear of being discovered. Facts get murky, and the information used to back up the assertions becomes less reliable than before. Eventually the ‘spinner’ gets stuck between the proverbial rock and hard place. To persist with the spin brings about “fixing of the facts”. (Sound familiar?) Yet acknowledging failure reveals how far one was willing to go to stretch those facts. If not checked, the spin evolves into an outright fiction. Orwell would be proud. Are you?

Blogged by Dr Alan Levinson on 08.15.05 @ 04:40 PM ET

[snowbear]

1. Thanks PainIntheHearse.. I went over to his blog.. busy place!

Looks like Conyer's has a lot of neat people dropping in to post! I only checked out one page.. so I'm not sure if they have troll problems. The Admin person gave the trolls a pretty firm warning, and maybe they scared them off? :rofl:

Anyway.. nice blog over there! ~~ :)

[paineinthearse]

2. The JC blog used to be wide open

Now you need to register in order to post, but you can still read without an account, which is free. You just need to give the admin your contact info and select a "handle".