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By Jim Heffernan
I was attracted to this book by the idea of persuasion. So much of our political discourse these days is not devoted to persuasion at all. Today, it seems opposing camps of “culture warriors” sling ideas against each other without taking the essential step of listening and entertaining the possibility finding common ground. I hadn’t really considered it before, but democracy without persuasion cannot thrive.
The book is divided into 7 chapters. It begins with a Prologue: The War on Persuasion and the chapters are 1. The Waking Among The Woke, 2. Can Love Change a Mind? 3. A Movement That Grows, 4. The Inside-Outside Game, 5. The Art Of Messaging, 6. The Vaccine Against Lies, 7. Meaning Making At The Door
I was particularly struck by the concept in the Prologue, “The War on Persuasion.” What better explains our current political climate? Democracy can only thrive with civil dialogue aimed at persuasion. Now we largely absorb dogmatic declarations from platforms such as Facebook and X/Twitter. Most are calibrated to tell us what we want to hear. A lot of the content originates from troll mines that exist purely to damage us.
The chapters advance their topics mainly by profiling people who actively succeed at persuasion. Some of the people are well-known like Bernie Sanders and Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, others are somewhat obscure. What binds them together is their success at convincing people to see things differently. At the heart of their success is always “deep canvassing” that engenders meaningful dialogue. Instead of spending a minute with a person, they all strive to stretch the time they spend with each person. They all spend the extra time questioning and listening.
I truly enjoyed the book. In a way, it snuck up on me by making its points by way of storytelling.
As always, discussion is welcome at codger817@gmail.com
Available Cloud and Leaf Bookstore, Manzanita; Tillamook Public Library
Numerous book discussions on YouTube
338 Pages, Published October 18, 2022
