On the front page of Huffington Post you’ll find “The Common Ground Fallacy.” It explores what happens to a government, actually to any organization, when persuasion is no longer an option, when it has to give way to two other forms of influence: coercion and manipulation.
Persuasion is often wrongly associated with subliminal forms of influence. Actually, persuasion, unlike other ways of attempting to change the beliefs, attitudes or behaviors of others is something people do WITH rather than TO each other. As such, it’s a relatively transparent form of influence. It doesn’t seek to pull the wool over the eyes of others or force them to acquiesce.
So, what happens when a government ceases to allow persuasion to function as a means of mutual influence? It’s a threat to democracy. When leaders fall into unwanted repetitive episodes (URPS) as discussed in other blogs here, they put all that came before at risk. Keeping score becomes paramount. See what you think.
