SWA #2

Matt Miller’s article “Is Persuasion Dead?” discusses how persuasion in order to change minds seems to be almost non-existent in today’s world. Miller asks “Is it possible in America today to convince anyone of anything he doesn’t already believe?” He discusses the way in which politicians no longer use persuasion to gain votes and the way in which political discussion is no longer persuasive. He also touches on the way in which the media has affected this trend.

Miller says that ninety-percent of political conversation is merely what he calls “talking points.” Politicians and political analysts no longer attempt to persuade anyone. They merely have arguments throwing their points back and forth with no real attempt to change anyone’s mind. Even best-selling books only say what the people reading them already believed. Politics have become more and more about telling people how you feel and not about proving to them that the way you feel is right. Politicians have realized that they don’t need to change anyone’s mind to get votes, so they no longer try to. This bleeds over into the act of leading as well. Miller believes that in order to be a good leader, you must influence the way people think, which requires persuasion. Since politicians are elected into office without the ability to persuade anyone, they are less effective as leaders.

The media has also played a part in the downfall of persuasion. Persuasion isn’t as effective in gaining attention; therefore, the media don’t have a need for it, and don’t present it. Even if a politician wants to change minds, the media makes it extremely difficult. The media cares more about things such as poll numbers and give politicians a very small amount of time to make their point. They feel that this is the only way to make debate entertaining, and naturally the media cares more about their ratings than anything else.

I don’t have a whole lot of experience with this topic myself. Most of the debates I’m involved in are somehow video game related in a forum on Myspace, and I don’t really watch a whole lot of political debates though. From what I’ve seen online I’d say that persuasion is pretty much pointless. As a whole Americans today seem to be very unwilling to listen to reason or consider positions other than their own. As an example: you might hear something like “Homosexuals shouldn’t be allowed to get married.” There’s no real legal basis for why but people argue it anyways. They have no real legal way of proving their point, but they are so set in with what they believe that they refuse to change their minds and give way no matter what. If something disagrees with what they believe they ignore it and push it to the side, or merely start spewing out there beliefs with no real way to back them up. Miller is probably right. For now, persuasion is dead.