"unSpun" Response 1.20.09

I found Chapter Three to be pretty interesting. It gave me a better look at how to read between the lines and overall, be able to analyze propaganda-type trickery. The idea that "language does our thinking for us" (pg 45) caught my attention. I believe this is true. Each individual has a conceived connection and/or idea about the meaning of a word. For example, my best friend, Steph, asks me to describe a female classmate. I offer that the individual has long hair and it short. Now consider this, I am 5 foot 10 inches and Steph is 5 foot 2 inches. Therefore, I perceive the female to be short, however Steph could consider her tall, if there is a height difference. Also, Steph's hair used to be considerably longer than mine, so the same idea applies. She may think differently of the word. In the end, we probably have a completely different idea of what the female looks like, because the language I chose did the "thinking" for us. The language used created the image.

I used to be a sales representative for Cutco knives. Trick #3, Weasel Words, really reminded me of this job. One scenario I can think of is our choice of the word "free". Sales reps were trained to go through a spiel, while showing off the merchandise, and then it was time to convince the perspective buyer to purchase. Of course we were trained to shoot high by selling large sets of knives and downsize from there, according to perceived interested. However, in order to aim high and be successful we were allowed to whip out that magic word "free". With the largest knife set you could offer other "free" items to go along with it. The trickery is that the other items aren't technically free. The knife sets are priced higher in the event that you would need to offer a "free" item. Therefore, the buyer is really paying for all the items, but think they are getting a deal. Tricky, tricky.