Sometimes you have to step back from the battle to see how it goes. Logistics is all important, but so is simple perspective. To fling an accusation at the enemy that what they are doing is not working is fraught with error.
For instance, we are beginning to hear the reassessments about so-called Trickle-Down economics. Learned minds are starting to point out its shortcomings. The problems. Many of us have been saying for years that it was bad idea, that, in fact, It Doesn’t Work.
Well, there’s a problem there, especially if what one is trying to do is win an argument.
We have to get our terms straight. We have to know what our expectations were and are.
And we have to understand that this is a war of misperception as much as anything else. When you say “It didn’t work” the very next thing you have to say or ask or assume is:Â for whom?
Because it certainly worked for some people.
This is important, because when you base your argument on a point that is contrary to the experience and expectation of your opponent, you’re about to have a Sisyphean task winning that argument. Because in fact it did work. Just not for a lot of people. And the problem with saying it didn’t work is making a probably false assumption that both your expectations were and are the same.
Oh, no. Your opponent does not hear your words because they don’t understand your point (on purpose or otherwise) because for them it did work. It did precisely what they wanted it to do.
Of course, if you go back to when it was embraced, that was the problem as well. You were talking different languages almost. When they sold us this idea with the classic “rising tide floats all boats” we took them to mean all boats, not just the ones like theirs. And since their boats rose, well, the damn thing worked like a charm! What are you complaining about?
I just point this out because words matter. Words contain assumptions and if we get them wrong we can end up mudwrestling over issues that could be better pursued by a simple reset and the understanding that we do not expect the same things, that “it works” or “it doesn’t work” mean entirely different things.
It didn’t fail. It just didn’t do what we thought it was intended to do.
But it did what someone intended it to do.
Now we can start calling it what it is. A fraud. Theft. Robbery.
