Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Opposite Positioning



I go to great lengths to discuss Politics in my Foolishness...Or Is It? without being Political. I will do that again in this posting but as you read what you are reading in this one you may start to think I am taking sides but I will not do that.

A short while back I was listening to a radio discussion which featured one talking head of the Liberal Persuasion and one from the Conservative Persuasion. The actual subjects they were bantering about are not important to this blog posting. It was the positions taken by the two sides that floored me.

One head made a devastating argument for his side of the topic under discussion. I said to myself, “Self, that is strong stuff! There is no comeback to that argument.” Then the other head talked his head and he said the exact opposite about every point that the first head had made. Someone had to be lying or wrong. There was no in between.

I was anxious to hear how the Moderator was going to draw out further evidence from both sides to support their positions but that never happened. The Moderator simply ignored the potential for juicy fact finding debate and moved on to another issue.

It dawned on me that I have seen this happen many times before. Actually it is an everyday occurrence. It is a strategy. This is what both sides do all the time. They send Talking Heads out to these Talk Shows to practice Opposite Positioning.

They emerge from their Focus Group Factories armed with a set of strongly held deep seated talking points and go to the Talk Shows to which they have been assigned for that particular day.

If they get to talk their heads first, they spout one of their strongly held deep seated beliefs. The #2 Head then says the opposite from what #1 Head had just said. #2 Head’s position may be exactly opposite to the strongly held deep seated belief he was about to recite before #1 Head took away his position. The Moderator then moves on to another subject.

They don’t have to believe what they are saying. They just have to say what they are saying. Both sides walk away feeling flushed with the sweet smell of victory. They are proud of what they have done and the voters are just as confused as we were before the heads made everything perfectly clear.

Since we are at the bottom of this Foolishness, I will give you The Bottom Line...If you think I am out of control on this one, I challenge you to stop and think about it for a few seconds. That’s about all it will take for you to come to the realization that I am speaking the truth. I always speak the truth...Or do I?

Would I kid u?