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Family and Friends is my everyday journal. Captain's Log is where I pontificate on religion and politics.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

First Impressions

A few months ago I was given a book to read as a part of my legal assistance job. The book was about the importance of opening statements in trials. Hollywood seems to think trials are won in closings, but this books premise was that trials are won in opening statements.
The theory behind the premise is that people usually make up their minds quickly no matter how objective they claim to be, and that once a person has made up his/her mind concerning guilt or non-guilt it becomes very difficult to change their minds.
This was preamble as a way to explain why the general public seems to be so gullible on certain issues and why control of the main stream media is so important to dupe the general public into starting wars and voting against their economic interests. When the truth comes out it doesn't matter for the general population their minds are made up, don't confuse them with facts.
Children grow up in religous schools being told that evolution is a hoax and the world was created in six, twenty-four hour days. It becomes very hard to change their minds on the subject after that. The media declares climate change to be a hoax and the rubes eat it up no matter how much evidence to the contrary.
Thought control doesn't take brute force, just quick lies told as truth. How else do you explain the demogogues that have our governments by the throat.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

People were straight-shooters, I guess, when I was growing up. Now, as Steve McQueen said in 1977, "Everything gets so flowery anymore. Nobody comes up to me and just tells me what they want". I agree with Steve. Your post reminded me of Paul Newman's closing argument in "The Verdict", which won the case. Great post!

Yogi♪♪♪ said...

Everybody is more interested in taking positions rather than discussing things these days. Once you take a position you have to defend it.

P M Prescott said...

Michael, great movie. Still the biggest flaw in most legal dramas, basically because they need conflict for the story, is the lack of homework before the trial and they are scrambling during the trial. That's not a good way to win anything.

P M Prescott said...

Yogi, it's just human nature to form an opinion quickly. When you meet someone for the first time and you decide that person is a jerk, smart, stupid, klutsy, etc it's hard to think differently. It's not impossible and many times we find our initial impressions to be wrong and become friends with that person. On political issues it's much harder to change peoples minds.