Use Quotations Wisely
Sunday, October 5th, 2008I like quotations. I’ve always liked quotations. But really, who doesn’t?
In the world or politics and government, quotes by famous people run rampant in debates and speeches. The reason for this is quite simple: quoting someone who is more well respected than you are adds perceived power and authority to the rest of your statement. In America, people from all across the political spectrum—although, so-called conservatives use the tactic more than anyone else—like to quote the founding fathers in an effort to demonstrate that anyone from Madison to Washington agrees with them and their particular positions. In debates this is used thusly, “Well, if you disagree with me on this position then you also disagree with Thomas Jefferson!” While this tactic can be valid and effective, it’s often played poorly and cheaply as nothing more than an arbitrary appeal to authority.
One of the foremost problems of this method of persuasion is the mindset of many of its worst abusers which can be summed up in the following statement: “John Adams agrees with me.” Most people hunting for quotes from authority figures aren’t generally interested in what those figures actually had to say but only in finding statements that strengthen their own position. While this sort of thing seems legitimate at first glance, beneath the obvious surface of what many of us have been guilty of at one time or another is a vast problem—the sort of problem that, if left unchecked, tends to pollute the thinking the philosophy of anyone.