Spin Doctors Need Not Apply

It was with great interest I watched Obama’s address to Congress the other night, and then, of course, Bobby Jindal’s rebuttal. I wanted to hear what they would say, but more interestingly, what the general buzz would be afterwards. As much as everyone says they want to hear details, they want a roadmap, they want to understand, the reality is, in a media saturated, politically polarized world, all anyone wants is grab onto a headline and hit a home run – for or against you. Recall the presidential election? Recall the policy debates? Probably little comes to mind except perhaps “pallin’ around with terrorists”, “lipstick on a pig” or “you betcha”.

We live in a world where a few catchy words influence and define our thinking – not just in politics but in everyday life. There is so much information but only so much one person can absorb, so we edit and parse ideas and sentences, hoping we don’t lose something in the translation, but knowing full well we cannot possibly have the whole picture. But then, of course, nobody has time to care. Everyone is running off to the next event, the next meeting, the next whatever. Facts flash before us day in and day out with very little registering except for the odd catchphrase.

I look at business today, my world, for example. An e-mail longer than 2 very short paragraphs risks not getting read. A proposal in anything other than Powerpoint sits on someone’s desk only to make its eventual way to the garbage can. Nobody has time to have a complete thought let alone read someone else’s. I’ve seen many a deal go south because of a lack of understanding, of “busy-ness” clouding good judgment. I cannot help but wonder why banking execs, living so long in the fast lane, could not pause for a moment to think about what they were doing. I can imagine what must have happened. Between meetings and cocktails, a quick chat with colleagues, each assuring the other they were doing ok, none of them stopping to wonder if such a declaration was even remotely true.

There is too much information and not enough time to digest thoughtfully, to debate back and forth. When time is money, it is context that gets lost. There just aren't enough resources to get to the truth. I recently had an experience where a loved one went through mediation to settle a dispute with a shady former boss. What I witnessed was a legal system brushing aside facts, all parties opting for the convenience of veneer layered conclusions and a clean wrap-up. It was a disenchanting, almost disconnecting experience – as if I was watching a movie in which the good guy lost. Movies shouldn’t end that way, nor should legal cases but here we were, watching justice go blind, if only because it didn’t have time to care.

The devil's in the details, I say. Too bad institutions, corporate or otherwise don't have the appetite for it. Communication today assumes some level of ADD. But then that's the main purpose of my blogging - to keep myself from such influence, to ensure I am thorough about being thoughtful.

Many of my work associates tell me I play devil’s advocate on EVERYTHING. They are probably right. I don’t want to live in a world where life is governed by distorted one-liners, glossy buzzwords or spin room antics. I want to live in a world where ideas are given their rightful place in the courts of peoples’ minds, to be properly dissected and vetted and only then to be accepted or discarded as the truth. I want to be a truth-seeker, a BS-eliminator, a person devoutly of her own mind. I know that it’s important to go beyond the cursory. If I cannot analyze, I cannot understand. I think I’ll make that my mantra. I’ll repeat it every time I feel the seductive pull of the forgone conclusion or untested idea. If I’m lucky, I’ll become informed - and maybe, just maybe, if I’m really lucky, I’ll finally come face-to-face with the truth.