Re: Television Appearance on CNN

From: Leonardo Gonzalez (magos@extropian.net)
Date: Fri Jul 12 2002 - 04:49:21 MDT


I particularly enjoyed when Max gave Moreno a dose of his own medicine with
"Excuse me; I'm talking." It even got a smile out of Moreno.

Probably the best way of exposing an opponents logical fallacies is to do
something similar... to take someone's words and energy and feed it back to
them in a way that shows inconsistency or contradiction.

My stepfather used this tactic when negotiating with parents at his
preschool. It's the Daoist / internal martial arts way of taking someone's
energy and redirecting it to your advantage.

The way to go about this is to determine the values that underlie a person's
words. If appropriate, determine the core values that underlie those
values. Then, instead of directly confronting their values (butting heads,
which leads to a "pissing match" where no one cedes ground), one can present
a perspective that, though different from the one they gave you, appeals to
their values and allows them to integrate that thought into their value /
belief system.

Further, the best way to determine these values (and just as importantly in
debate, to defuel the antagonism in their tone), is to LISTEN and
acknowledge that you hear the other person's perspective. This will make
the other person feel heard and offer hope of common ground to work from (or
at least an understanding of their perspective so that they don't have to
keep presenting it to you).

Max did a great job of this when he was asked if resusitated people would be
trying to get back on Social Security and get back their inheritance.
Though asked in a tone of ridicule, Max simply acknowledgde that this was
one of many complex issues that would need to be thought about and
addressed. Not appearing to have all the answer can often IMPROVE one's
credibility just by displaying a sense of honesty and humility.

Lastly, the format of the show (and the name itself) was very conducive to
the of impasse-generating "pisssing match" discussions. The objective of
the show seemed to be to create enough controversy and opposing viewpoints
that we'd get to see some "action"... intense, heated debating.

Although this was a great opportunity for national exposure, I recommend
that public relations efforts be carried out in different types of contexts.
Maybe now that Max has been seen, he will be invited to speak at talk shows
and more freely describe the extropian principles that inspire us.



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