Were you moved by Chris Christie’s soliloquy about drug addiction? Christie is a great communicator and he offered some emotion-laden words about drug addiction in New Hampshire the other day. The video, dutifully reproduced here, has gone viral. Millions of people have seen it. I trust that they have all been moved as much as you and I have.
Christie was arguing for drug treatment. He was arguing against those who believe that addicts should not be treated. Unfortunately, this is a straw man argument. Everyone is in favor of more treatment for people who abuse drugs. No one really believes that we can solve the problem by tossing drug addicts into jail.
Speeches that appeal to our emotions often induce us not to ask too many questions. If you do, you start sounding unsympathetic, lacking empathy. The more emotionally moving the speech the more likely we are to believe it; we let our feelings guide us and we take it on faith.
No comments:
Post a Comment