Author Shares Political Insights, Philosophy With A Healthy Helping Of Humor
02/04/2008
If any book can bring clarity and good humor to the political doublespeak that plagues the current political campaign, or indeed any campaign or gathering of bureaucrats, it is Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein’s new book, a small, visually pleasing volume with a very long title: Aristotle and an Aardvark Go to Washington: Understanding Political Doublespeak Through Philosophy and Jokes. Entertaining and informative, the book uses examples from recent political speeches to illustrate philosophical concepts, and uses philosophy to explain the verbal dances that many politicians indulge in to avoid speaking the truth. A cartoon from the book is illustrative. One campaign worker is reviewing a speech written by a junior worker. “It’s a good speech,” he says. “Just a couple of points need obfuscation.” In another cartoon on the same theme, two senior bureaucrats congratulate a third on his speech, saying “Congratulations, Dave, I don’t think I’ve ever read a more beautifully evasive and subtly misleading public statement in all my years in government.” Having worked in state and local government myself, and in consulting firms serving those governments, I fear these cartoons express something quite close to the truth, and it is comforting to know that people like Mr. Cathcart and Mr. Klein are on our side, helping us to identify and respond to those deliberate attempts to obscure the facts. Mr. Cathcart spoke recently at Eight Cousins Bookstore in Falmouth, and I talked to him afterward at his home in Sandwich. He said that most people have grown skeptical and are not fooled by the claims and counterclaims of politicians, bureaucrats, and candidates for office. But, while they may recognize baloney when they hear it, they are not really sure why it’s baloney. Aristotle and an Aardvark helps you figure out the “why” and teaches a little philosophy in the process. Readers will learn about formal and informal logical fallacies, weasel words, artful equivocation, weak analogies, slippery slope arguments, guilt by association, ad hominem and “ad homonym” arguments, white lies, and many more. Each concept is illustrated by a good joke or two, and cartoons, many from the New Yorker, are thrown in for good measure. It’s an entertaining and informative book, and it will help you sort through all that obfuscation. An example of doublespeak is Dick Cheney’s statement in February 2007 in response to the news that Britain would begin withdrawing troops from Iraq at the same time that President Bush was trying to convince the American public that a troop surge was necessary. Mr. Cheney’s response was, “Well, I look at it and see it is actually an affirmation that there are parts of Iraq where things are going pretty well. In fact I talked to a friend just the other day who …found the situation dramatically improved from a year or so ago, sort of validated the British view that they had made progress in southern Iraq and that they can therefore reduce their force levels.” This, according to Mr. Cathcart, is an example of the Texas Sharpshooter’s Fallacy. If things aren’t going your way, you shoot a bunch of holes in the barn door, and then draw a target around them. Then you claim that the outcome was the one you were aiming for all along. In this way, failure becomes success. Although Mr. Cathcart said he tried to be even-handed in his book by critiquing the doublespeak of both Democrats and Republicans, he does skewer the current administration a bit more than any other. Mr. Cathcart and Mr. Klein are also the authors of Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes, which was published early in 2007 and quickly rose to New York Times best-seller status. Plato and a Platypus uses jokes and cartoons to discuss metaphysics, logic, epistemology, ethics, religion, existentialism, and more. It includes a humorous, yet helpful, glossary and philosophy timeline. Though not really intended as a serious text on philosophy, the book has been translated into 19 languages and has become a bestseller in other countries. Penguin has bought the paperback rights to the book, and it will soon be marketed to college students as supplemental reading in philosophy. A textbook author has plans to use quotations from the book at the beginning of each chapter of his philosophy text. Mr. Cathcart and Mr. Klein both have degrees in philosophy from Harvard. Mr. Cathcart has had a varied career, including working with street gangs in Chicago, attempting divinity school a couple of times, working in hospital and healthcare administration, teaching philosophy, and running a hospice for AIDS patients. Mr. Klein worked for many years as a comedy writer for the likes of Flip Wilson and Lily Tomlin, and has written numerous nonfiction and fiction books, including a series of novels featuring Elvis Presley as an amateur detective. Titles include Blue Suede Clues and Viva Las Vengeance. Because they do not live near each other (Mr. Klein lives in western Massachusetts), they collaborate on their writing through e-mail. Mr. Cathcart has more background in philosophy, so he writes the first draft and sends it to Mr. Klein, who, according to Mr. Cathcart, adds “pixie dust,” enlivening the writing and adding jokes that he finds in joke books or on the Web. They pass the work back and forth by e-mail, a chapter at a time. The authors’ next project doesn’t sound particularly funny. It is a book about death. It will take a look at facing death, the afterlife, paranormal happenings, and life extension strategies. If it is anything like their two previous books, it will be intelligent, thought-provoking, and will make the reader smile. [view article]

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