Politicians are well known to use spin as one of their tools, listed businesses also. When it is used from one country to the next we call it propaganda. But what do we call it when we use it as an individual?
Pride, boasting, egoism, denial, twisting the truth, fibbing, lying!
It is not merely putting your best foot forward, it is claiming that your foot is better than it really is, that you are more that you really are.
How often are you willing to let people think you contributed more to a project than you really did? That success was due to you more than it really was? That your faults are smaller and your strengths greater than they really are? If truth is your goal, then spin cannot be.
2 comments:
The problem I see is that if you attempt to truly represent what you believe, others who disagree with your conclusions are still going to refer to it as spin/ propaganda.
Think of economic debate, capitalists genuinely believe the poor (over time) do better in a free market. Socialists disagree and think that capitalists know that capitalism will keep the poor poor, but will keep capitalists rich, so they accuse capitalists of spinning the truth for the sake of staying rich. This accusation of spin ends debate.
Of course some people do spin the truth knowingly so. Unfortunately others believe them and spread the story thinking it is the truth.
The answer is your last paragraph: challenge the individual. If you intentionally deceive saying the end justifies the means you sin.
yes you are right, some people are genuine in their beliefs, even if they are not entirely accurate, but also we have to be aware and open to the possibility that we also are not 100% objective in our views either.
I am always skeptical of people who point out how biased others are whilst claiming their total objectivity. I suppose over the long term you should be able to get a sense of whether someone is a Spin-Doctor or a balanced advocate for their point of view and take their views with the required amount of salt.
Question: How many people actively solicit feedback, particularly from those outside their bias, in order to test their own objectivity? In the words of Scribe - "not many... if any..."
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