Persuasion

The new movie Amazing Grace has me thinking about the powers and limits of persuasion. Writing a blog is a good lesson in the limits. Ideas and ideologies have their own immune systems which fiercely resist the attacks of contrary notions. Persuading people who already largely agree with you is easier, of course. Trying to persuade those who don't is likely to result in anger, frustration, and insult.

And yet, the power is evident too. A tiny few have managed to transform the world with the persuasiveness of their ideas and examples - sometimes even for good. Jesus Christ, Martin Luther, Fredrick Douglass, Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King, as well as Wilberforce and Wesley are prominent examples.

Beyond ideas is the problem of translating those ideas into actions. Washington and Jefferson knew that slavery was evil, but lacked to moral, political and personal courage to act against it. Nor can one deny that the time was not yet ripe in the United States for abolition. If Washington and Jefferson had spoken out for abolition, the US would never have come into being, and the incipient nation would likely have become divided into weak and warring states that would have been easy prey for recolonialization. One might also claim that they, in their wisdom, chose to accept a great evil in the name of a greater good.

Those who thus transform the world seem to need to be narrow, even fanatical, in their focus.

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