Gary Gutting “Facts, Arguments and Politics”

by Jaunita Naylor, June 2014

600 words

2 pages

essay

The article by Gary Gutting “Facts, Arguments and Politics” centers on the issue of truth, lies and real facts in politics. Obviously, this is the burning issue in this sphere and this argument proves to be especially precious in nowadays society.

In order to search for specific trends in the development of the political system of governance different facts should be promptly revealed. In fact, they are needed compare different periods of a political team and its members. Consequently, from one aspect, lie in politics is not acceptable. It is interesting that the discussion of the author from the very beginning evolved from a slightly abstract to the very specific. The author uses concrete examples of two ruling forces and touches the phenomenon of lies to people: that is when politicians lie to their voters. Everyone knows from history that any state has repeatedly lied to each other in order to achieve their goals. Still, this fact cannot be taken for granted. The author also beneficially used the allegory with Pinocchio: he compared politicians to this character since they also lie and it is frequently obvious to many people.

On the other hand, Gary Gutting presents the other side of the argument: what would happen if suddenly all politicians said nothing but the truth? Then, the state secrets would immediately become public, politicians would tell what they really have in mind, and so on. Perhaps, there would be a wave of suicide. Following the argument of the author, a public figure can be compared to a pilot who has to manage a falling plane – telling passengers the truth means to sow panic and lose all hope of salvation. Therefore, the gift of an actor is needed in politics no less than oratorical.

Ironically, the debate was not without the effect of parallelism. Mr. Gutting make a successful parallel by comparing two sides: Obama and Romney. This comparison is beneficial since it allows a reader to encompass both sides and understand both approaches. Moreover, the author provides several opinions of different experts to support his view. Overall, the combination of these techniques (allegory, parallels and expert opinions) make the article coherent and comprehensive.

Finally, there is not much to be altered in the article: the author wrote a well-structured argument which covers both sides and let the reader decide on a particular issue. The main thing is that the article it makes a reader think, to try to find an answer to the question: in what situations lies in politics are productive and expedient, and in which – harmful and destructive.

References

Gutting, Gary. (September 2012). Facts, Arguments and Politics. The New York Times. Retrieved from: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/13/facts-arguments-and-poli …

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