Truth over Happiness

[babylonsister]

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200902u/polling-obama

by Jodie Allen and Richard Auxier
Truth over Happiness


Ok, so maybe Americans do like happy talk. That, anyway, is what the pundits and the pols (including a former president) have been telling President Obama ever since his relatively somber inaugural address—lighten up, fella, let’s hear more of that ‘yes we can’ talk!

As widely noted, President Obama responded to these concerns, including with some “made-for-applause” lines in his address to Congress. “We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before,” he assured his listeners. “…We are a nation that has seen promise amid peril and claimed opportunity from ordeal.” Etc.

Instant polling appeared to confirm the predicted positive response. The CBS News/Knowledge Networks poll, for a fast example, found that, among its sample of speech watchers (38 percent Democrats, 26 percent Republicans and 36 percent independents) an overwhelming 80 percent said they approved of the president’s plan for dealing with the economic crisis. Prior to the speech, 63 percent approved.

Still, unwilling to abandon the tough-minded, fact-based approach that characterized the opening weeks of his presidency, Obama administered an even larger dose of downers: “None of this will come without cost, nor will it be easy.” Etc.

snip//

So what do Americans want from a leader if not happy talk?

As it turns out, they want honesty. According to a Pew Research Center poll conducted last summer, fully 96 percent of the public say that the requirement that a political leader be honest is either “absolutely essential” (52 percent) or “very important” (44 percent), making it the most sought-after trait in a political leader. In fact, those in Obama’s opposition party are somewhat more likely to say honesty is absolutely essential (59 percent of Republicans) than are those in his own party (50 percent of Democrats) or independents (52 percent).

Of course views of what constitutes the truth, and hence what counts as truth telling, tend to differ somewhat across party lines. Still, it is noteworthy that the Pew Research poll found that Obama is currently seen as “trustworthy” by 76 percent of Americans, including by a majority of Republicans. By comparison, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton each received trustworthiness ratings in the low 60s when they took office. So whether, in future speeches, Obama opts to put the accent on the positive or on the negative, he would do well to emphasize the facts, at least as far as they are knowable.

[Gregorian]

1. The truth is the only way to stay in control.

I'm glad to see this report. Just like so many who are not being heard regarding ending the war, prosecuting crimes that lead to that war, and many more things. We've been treated like grammar school children. As though we couldn't handle the truth. If they think that financial markets rely on confidence, what they fail to understand is that confidence relies on the truth. I'm not confident when I don't know where the edge of the cliff is. Being a shopper just to keep the growth going is not going to solve this situation we're in.

Control systems utilize feedback loops. Yes, the feedback can be tweaked in order to facilitate specific controlling results. But to feed back garbage and falsities only leads to being out of control.

There are many silent voices out there. We've perhaps sold this country short. Just because we were hijacked doesn't mean we asked for it.

[Igel]

2. No, people don't want the truth.

They want to be told happy things--or that they're right--and then be assured that it's the truth.

They especially want to be told happy things and that they're right, that it's the truth, and be insulated from any negative consequences of not being told the truth. They want the form of responsibility without the burden of it, to eat their cake and have a baker there with a fresh one telling them that, really, it's the one they just polished off. Hey, eat a cake and get 0 calories from it--the new American dream.

Dostoevsky had it right in the Brothers Karamazov. Mystery, bread, and entertainment. An equally good damning of Roman Catholicism or modern American politics.