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Know Jack # 438 Spinning a Story

Writer's picture: Jack LaFountainJack LaFountain

"Wherever despotism abounds, the sources of public information are the first to be brought under its control." ~ Calvin Coolidge

 

I have pretty much made a career of bringing up sensitive subjects in such a way that they cannot be easily avoided and those involved must make a choice. That’s one of the reasons I was never a good pastor and why I have few friends. Don’t get me wrong, I do my share of procrastination and wavering on issues that I don’t find urgent.  However, there are times when it is a person’s duty to set expediency and conciliation aside and take a stand for what honor requires.

 

Just as sure as those times come, the result will be slanted in favor of those who control the sources of information surrounding the action. Victors write the history of events. Those who describe the battles decide who are seen as heroes and who are seen as villains. Controlling the story while it’s being told is better than having another battalion to send into battle.

 

Is looting and burning a neighborhood rioting, or a protest of the offended and oppressed? It depends on who is doing the burning and who is describing it. Is collecting money to fund another person’s college educational debt relief or is it theft? Again, it depends upon the characters in the story and how the storyteller wants to explain their actions.

 

I’ve sat in Literature class and listened to lectures about what motivated the author, what the words he wrote were really saying, and how “this” was the author’s way of saying “that” and “that” was his way of saying “this”. I’d like to be around a hundred years from now and find out what I was thinking while I wrote my books. I have a feeling it will sound a lot like whatever the professor wants me to say.

 

It’s a wise person who knows every storyteller has a point to make and that point is colored by the teller’s own vision. Two sides are one side more than most people care to hear.

Maranatha



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