Introduction to Part 2 (2 of 2)
In the first part of this two-part post I discussed one reason for my move from perhaps a naïve optimism to moderate pessimism about today’s polity and society. In this post, I discuss several additional reasons for my change in attitude.
One is the deep, intense political polarization now present in our polity and society. I think it important to differentiate between strong cultural divides or polarizations and our deep political polarization. During the past several decades the country witnessed several significant cultural divisions that were not aimed at or involved specific political parties.
In the 1950s, the Supreme Court’s Brown v.… Read the rest
Aquinas: Truth-Telling as a Moral Virtue
I recently came across a paper on Thomas Aquinas and truth-telling and wondered whether a medieval theologian/philosopher could say anything to an increasingly post-truth world. The author of the paper, Fainshe Ryan, quotes some lines from Michiko Kakutani’s book, The Death of Truth: “…cynicism and weariness and fear can make people susceptible to the lies and false promises of leaders bent on unconditional power. As Hannah Arendt wrote in her 1951 book The Origins of Totalitarianism, ‘The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e.… Read the rest
A Follower-Centric Approach to Trump’s Election
To the extent that leadership scholars examine Trump as a leader, followers play a significant role in studying Trump and leadership. This post continues that theme. Carsten, Bligh, Kohles, and Wing-Yan Lau analyze how Trump’s rhetoric may have attracted followers with certain characteristics.
Trump’s rhetoric and behavior leading up to his election bewildered many people. Dictionary.com added the phrase “fake news” into its lexicon for the first time largely based on Trump’s usage of that term. Some see in Trump’s election the full-blown advent of the “post-truth era.” Truth blurs into falsity and vice-versa in this era. Emotions and one’s personal beliefs become more important than hard facts.… Read the rest
Communication Style in the Republican Primaries
Several posts on this blog discuss the topic of leadership, Trump, and rhetoric. I will add to this set of posts an article by three Canadian psychologists. Ahmadian et al. discuss Trump’s communication style. The article is based on research that compares Trump with his main opponents in the Republican primaries. The authors wrote the article prior to Trump’s general election win. They examined 27 speeches each of which involved 30 minutes or more of continuous speech not prompted by a question. The speeches averaged about 38.5 minutes. All the speeches were early speeches (each candidate’s announcement speech and two other early speeches).… Read the rest
Recent Comments