The Consequences of Refusing to Persuade

"No oppression is so heavy or lasting as that which is inflicted by the perversion and exorbitance of legal authority." --Joseph Addison

Freedom. We all love it. It's what our country was founded upon. However, I doubt the Founding Fathers ever believed freedom would be a spectator sport and something that politicians would use for their political gain.

One problem we have is a tendency toward excessive political correctness. We're all so worried about not offending anyone and we shrink away from having any opinions. This means we don't learn how to argue our points and don't have to defend our beliefs. And therefore, we aren't empowered or informed to the extent that we could be. When you truly know an issue, only then can you defend what you believe to be true. And only by engaging others can we learn and understand our differences.

Instead of engaging and possibly offending, we have become a nation of mutes. We go along to get along instead of making our voices heard. It's a strange submissiveness. Those in power take advantage of our silence and frame the issues, they foist rules upon us, and we're supposed to sit back and acquiesce.

The biggest offenders of our seemingly required submission to authority is the police. Their duty is to protect and serve, yet they seem to have forgotten this and instead believe they are around to seem how much compliance they can get out of each and every person they come into contact with.

The following story illustrates what I mean.

Recently I came across an article in The Oregonian entitled "Four Sue Police, Alleging 'Dirty Tactics'".

One of the four plaintiffs, Frank Waterhouse, is suing the police department for unlawful seizure with excessive force. In his allegations he states that the police fired a Taser at him and bean bag rounds as he was videotaping the police search his friend's property.

He says in the suit that the police immediately came after him when they saw that he was videotaping and they yelled at him to "put it (the camera) down." When the officers came at him, (as he was running away) he said, "Don't come after me." He said seconds later he was shot with a bean bag gun and a Taser and fell to the ground.

One officer wrote, "He had refused to drop the camera which could be used as a weapon."

Hmmm. . . how can it be that he was running away from the officers and still seen as a threat?

When good people keep quiet because they believe it is the 'politically correct' or 'safe' thing to do, then they get whatever their "handlers" or the authority figures give them. I'd say it's high time to begin using your persuasion skills to let others know what you think. Don't let this happen to you.

Article Source: http://www.rightbiz.com

Kenrick Cleveland teaches techniques to earn the business of affluent clients using persuasion. He runs public and private seminars and offers home study courses and coaching programs in persuasion techniques.

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