The power of words.
Most of the time I don’t pay much attention to TV and radio advertisements as they buzz by my ears but every once in awhile one of them will catch my attention and snap me out of my apathy. This message I heard recently while driving and listening to my favorite music channel did just that. While my citing of it might not be completely accurate here is the essence of it.
“If you owe money to the IRS, or your credit card company, don’t sweat it, we will show you how to get them off your back so they will not bother you again. “
Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t receive dividends from the credit card companies and the IRS might be the villains in this story. I am not naïve or righteous either, I also like to wiggle out of my obligations every once in awhile and score a free ride.
So when I listen to this message a new realization hits me on the head. I become conscious of the fact that all the time that I paid these monthly payments and declared my income I really did not have to do it. I was just too slow to catch on and understand how other people do it. The game of life was too quick or sophisticated for me and so I was left behind, on the side of the road, an easy prey.
This epiphany that I am sensing while sitting in my car is growing inside me like a snow ball. I now realize that while I am dutifully paying my debts and working hard on the task of spending only what I can pay back, someone, quick and more resourceful (or daring) is getting away not only with irresponsible spending but with not paying . I was a good student and I know it goes against the most basic law in the book, the one drilled into us all, the one we were taught by our parents and several teachers on right and wrong. You do the crime and so you need to be able to stand up like a man (maybe women) and be accountable.
This message is being broadcasted day after day on the main channels creeping in between innocent songs and other enlightening but essentially harmless advertisements and this makes it sound okay. Yes you overspent; yes you were irresponsible, a moocher and a parasite, a sleek trickster but there is no cause for alarm, help is on the way. We declare this over the airwaves for everyone to share in our great scheme.
The possible insinuations and repercussions of this mind set are staggering; it can easily affect more and more people, leak into other walks of life and contaminate them. As motel owners we already see the start of it. We encounter more and more incidents when guests are trying to pull a fast one and walk away from paying by either lying or becoming aggressive and abusive. They are using the famous and often harmful slogan, the customer is always right even when he is wrong but underneath it I can detect that hidden message. Only the stupid, timid or slow; concedes to his mistakes and when caught in action resign do the “right thing”.
True, cheating or tricking your way through life and then wriggle through loopholes to avoid the penalties was always a weapon people used. There are whole cultures that live by the belief that cutting corners is not only an option it’s actually a way of life and by conning, at times to the extreme, you only exercise your right to survive on a hostile ground. When caught in the act people around will nod and hide a smile as if you are a clever witty child. It might be frown upon on but not condemned.
Could it be that the people behind this message are actually good doers and the people who ask for their help are just honest folks who fell into hard times. Together they will work on a reasonable solution, devise a resolution fit for the case at hand. This is a tempting course to take and maintain our belief in the innate seed of honesty in all people but regretfully I will have to crush this bud while still not in full bloom. I listened and re listened to this message time and time again, each time making a great effort to read between the spoken lines, seeking an honest tone something that will suggest a candid resolution. There is nothing there but waving a polished promise to join in on a far from honest plot. It is probably a double edged well crafted web where the predators while making sure to get their share will not hesitate to con both sides.
So let’s keep in mind that even if words are just that, words, seemingly harmless, in the wrong hands they can become a weapon. We should always remember how easy it is to be blinded and fooled by skilful rhetoric and walk into the web willingly, only to wake up helplessly tangled and unable to free one-self. This awareness and the recognition of how easy it is to use words to create a certain frame of mind will help us stay watchful and maybe even prevent this mind set from spreading and taking over.
I'm going to comment a little tonight, more tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteThe radio in my car crapped out two years ago, so I've been improving my mind during my commute with college courses on CDs--so I may not have heard the particular ads you are writing about.
Are they debt consolidators or bankruptcy experts?
I think it makes a difference in how I would react. Bankruptcy always does seem on the wrong and cheating side, just as you describe, until I remember how people used to be put in debtors' prisons. And then again when I read horror stories about people saddled with insane medical bills they can never hope to pay off, lives and families blighted by an accident or illness.
It is possible, by the way, to get the IRS off your case with chapter 7 bankruptcy, but it is not easy at all.
Debt consolidators will pay off your debts if you qualify for a secured loan with them, but then you are in hock to them--they are not doing you any favors because their interest is still high and they will sell your debt or your assets at the first chance to turn a profit on you. You can tell from the ad that people who fall for that are either stupid or desperate or both. Or, as you say, sleazebags trying to get out from under some bad shopping sprees on credit cards....
I don't imagine running a motel is much of an education in the glories of human nature and the nobility of human character. Teachers often must deal with exactly the sort of manipulative tricks you mention.
More on this tomorrow--this was mostly a reaction to content, not the writing.
I'm impressed with a topic like this that is both personal and had public and general applications. It's the opposite of the topic on which there is nothing new to be said, all sides and possibilities exhausted.
ReplyDeleteThe fancy name for the topic is 'moral hazard.' Here's how wikipedia defines it: "Moral hazard occurs when a party insulated from risk behaves differently than it would behave if it were fully exposed to the risk.
Moral hazard arises because an individual or institution does not take the full consequences and responsibilities of its actions, and therefore has a tendency to act less carefully than it otherwise would, leaving another party to hold some responsibility for the consequences of those actions. For example, a person with insurance against automobile theft may be less cautious about locking his or her car, because the negative consequences of vehicle theft are (partially) the responsibility of the insurance company."
Of course, the moral hazard you describe so well on a micro level with, say, credit card deadbeats blew up on a macro level two years ago with the collapse of the fancy debt leveraging and insurance instruments that the bankers had invented.
I mention all this because one of the goals of enlisting the reader is to at least get him thinking about the topic, not dismissing it out of hand--so here I am, engaged with the topic, an immediate compliment to the writer.
The writing here is odd, but, even reading it three times, I'm not quite sure how to characterize it beyond that or what I advice, if any, I want to give, so you will have to wait for yet another comment installment.
Okay, I said 'odd' and I have to follow through with an explanation. I think you have made a mistake common in opinion pieces but you have managed to hide it pretty well--it's a problem in self-presentation. No one wants to seem intolerant or a scold so, instead of focusing and doubling down on what angers you, you try to softpedal it, lessen the strength of what you originally needed to say.
ReplyDeleteWhen graf 3 is followed by graf 4, there is a little cognitive dissonance for the reader--the two are both honest reactions, but do not quite match up, and I don't think you deal with the gap between them.
And by graf 5, you're clearly outraged and indignant--again, how does that 5 square with graf 3?
So I guess I'd drop 3 and come across as a square and a straight arrow and even as a prig, rather than let your need to be seen to be human and imperfect (graf 3) hijack the next few grafs.
And I think you are doing the same thing near the end when you talk about cheater cultures and finding a seed of honesty. You're trying to be broadminded, to see a wider context--but that just derails the reader.
Anger, disgust, contempt, disdain are a lot more powerful than sympathy and understanding, at least in the arena of rhetoric, unless one is a Martin Luther King or an Abraham Lincoln or a Jesus. Much better to smite the heathen, full force!
I wrote this before I read your comment #3.
ReplyDeleteTrying to look at the writing again in different eyes. So I am posting it eventhough I see that you are aiming at something different.
When this piece of writing started I wanted to talk about how powerful words are and more then that, how fascinating it is that the same exact words can assume an entirely different meaning by using a subtext aimed at different goals by different people. I did not want it to sound too vague and so I borrowed an example that seemed pretty straight forward and close to home.
So basically there are two layers to the essay, the issue of debt, credit cards etc’ very important but not one I’ll normally write about and the other one, the one I was more interested in, the words, subtext and creating a mindset. Maybe between these two issues both powerful, pulling in different directions something gets lost. Or maybe the example is taking away from the main issue at hand.
Just wondering …
Graf 3 - I can see it now, needs to go away for sure. 8&9 I need to reread and see what can be done with them, if at all.
ReplyDeleteI think I overlooked the second layer--for me, the specific example does overwhelm the more general intent you had. Ironically, the larger goal seems much vaguer than the means to reach it.
ReplyDelete