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This week’s featured posts.
Strategy. Innovation. Brand.
Go Poets! Poetry at the Olympics
Did you know that poetry was an Olympic sport — with gold, silver, and bronze medals? Long, long ago, the original Greek games always had a poetry festival as well as athletic events. When the games were revived in the modern era, so was the poetry. In fact, the 1912 games in Stockholm featured poetry, literature, painting, sculpture, and architecture. I gather that the poetry had to celebrate sports in some way or another…which led to some embarrassing results. For the Helsinki games in 1952, the various literary/artistic prizes were quietly dropped and they’ve not been seen since. It seems to me that we should bring them back — why not celebrate all forms of human endeavor, not just athletics? To read more about poetry at the Olympics, click here or here.
The Art of Persuasion – Arguing Against Obamacare
What if President Obama doesn’t call me? What if it’s John Boehner who calls to ask for help in crafting an argument against Obamacare? What would I say?
I’d start by saying that opponents of the ACA have already done the heavy lifting. They’ve positioned Obamacare as an infringement on personal liberty and an expensive one to boot. It’s a fairly simple argument to make — “How dare the government tell me — a free thinking American individual — what to do? That smacks of collectivism and, given the history of government programs, it’s going to cost a lot of money. Our budget is already completely out of whack; we can’t afford to do more.”
So which argument is more persuasive? Frankly, I think the argument against the ACA is simpler and, therefore, should be more persuasive. Indeed, it seems to be working already. The most recent poll I’ve read suggests that 50% of Americans are against the law and only 45% are for it. Still, the proponents of Obamacare haven’t been very aggressive in positioning the law as an issue of responsibility. As they sharpen their rhetorical tools, the fault line could shift — probably not dramatically but perhaps just enough to claim a majority. The history of Social Security may give some insight. Social Security was not broadly popular when it first passed and was deemed by many — perhaps a majority — to be unconstitutional. Today, Social Security is the “third rail” of American politics — nobody can mess with it.
The Art of Persuasion – Arguing for Obamacare
The Supreme Court ruling made Obamacare constitutional but it didn’t make it popular. What can rhetoric — the classic art of persuasion — tell us about crafting an argument for (or against) the Affordable Care Act (ACA)? In this post, I’ll sketch out a persuasive argument for Obamacare. In my next post, I’ll sketch out an argument against it.
A general rule of persuasion is that the simpler argument usually wins the debate. So, if President Obama called me to ask for help crafting the argument for the ACA, I’d say two things: 1) Simplify through analogy, 2) reframe to responsibility. (I’d also tell him to make me Ambassador to Ecuador — that’s what I really want).
Simplify through analogy — the simplest analogy is car insurance. We used to allow people to drive without insurance. To cover the damage caused by uninsured drivers, we set up large uninsured motorist funds supported by taxpayers. Ultimately, we got tired of paying for the carnage caused by uninsured drivers — also known as “free riders”, “deadbeats” and “jerks” — and passed mandate requiring drivers to have some insurance in order to drive. The result? Total costs to “responsible” drivers went down because we had to pay only for our own insurance and not also for uninsured motorists.
Reframe to responsibility — opponents of the ACA have positioned it as an infringement on liberty. Supporters should reframe this to personal responsibility. Everyone should take responsibility for the cost of their own healthcare. If you don’t, you’re a free rider – you pass your costs on to other, more responsible citizens. Those who pay for health insurance are also paying the cost for caring for deadbeats and free riders. Sounds a lot like socialized medicine.
What about the dreaded word, “tax”? The Supremes have labeled the mandate a tax, which is precisely why they’ve said that it’s legal. If supporters of Obamacare try to argue that it’s not a tax, they’ll simply appear to be dissembling which will reduce their persuasiveness. So they need to embrace the word, more or less like this, “Yes, it’s a tax. It’s a tax on irresponsibility. If you choose not to act responsibly, then we’re going to ask you to pay into a kitty that will help defray the costs of your care. It’s your choice. Act responsibly and pay no tax. Or act irresponsibly and pay a small tax. By the way, you’re already paying a tax — you’re paying for everyone who doesn’t have insurance but needs health care. Hospitals can’t turn them away, so they send the bill to you.”
Will it work? Well, look at the next post in this series to see the opposite argument.
Plagiarism or Homage?
Jonah Lehrer, author of the bestselling book, Imagine: How Creativity Works, was recently exposed as a plagiarist — of himself. Some of the material in his blog on The New Yorker had previously appeared in articles he wrote for the Wall Street Journal. Similarly, sections of Imagine had appeared in Lehrer’s articles and columns. The literati and the blogosphere lashed Lehrer harshly. Lehrer even lashed himself, saying, “It was an incredibly stupid thing to do and incredibly lazy and absolutely wrong.” The editor of The New Yorker‘s web site said simply, “This is wrong. … It’s not going to happen again.”
At virtually the same time, however, The New Yorker published Richard Brody’s review of Woody Allen’s new movie, To Rome With Love, with Penelope Cruz. As Brody notes, the movie includes many “allusions” to Allen’s earlier works, including Scoop, Annie Hall, and Stardust Memories. Brody also notes (approvingly) that To Rome with Love even repeats a joke from Midnight in Paris. Brody doesn’t seem to be at all bothered by these allusions and homages. Other news outlets panned To Rome With Love — the L.A. Times called it “meandering” and Policy Mic called it a “thinly spread mess of clunky story telling”. But Brody calls it one of Allen’s “most coherent and deepest” works to come along in recent years.
So, when does self-homage become self-plagiarism? The New Yorker muddles the point.
Full disclosure – I often make essentially the same point in different media, including this blog, my course lectures, speeches, and seminars. Does that make me a plagiarist?
Building Brands Consistently
Who’s Grover White? If you don’t know him, you really should meet him. He’s a great guy. But because we’ve changed his name — ever so slightly — we may have confused you. Grover is better known under a different brand name … but you would never know that if we haven’t used the brand name consistently.
Great brands deploy their names and symbols consistently. You know who they are because they never change what they call themselves. They minimize confusion and, by doing so, they maximize trust. And a brand is simply a name that you trust.
To find out who Grover White is, just watch the video.
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