Nick Antosca posted the following piece on The Huffington Press website on August 28, 2008: "John McCain is not your friend. Smash him up." His post is just how his title sounds.
You can read it at:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nick-antosca/john-mccain-is-not-your-f_b_122147.html
This is my response.
Sorry, Nick. The ends never justify the means and as a society we are very long overdue in facing this most basic reality. The ends justify the means only when one is interested in short-term gains regardless of long-term costs. Does that remind you of anyone currently in high political office? The delusion that the ends justify the means is a tactic used by fanatics and extremists, not by those dedicated to ending tyranny.
Using spin is a type of lack of integrity that is the inevitable outgrowth of the "ends justify the means" mentality.
That is why the challenge here is not to fight spin with spin. It is to create a new approach to politics by embodying that approach, not by becoming that which perpetuates the dysfunctionality in our system in the name of changing the system.
There is no longer any excuse for perpetuating the Era of Spin allegedly in the name of winning at all cost. That cost is not only too high but it is utterly unnecessary. Professing to believe in a new way but not seeking and finding new and effective strategies that embody that new way is a kind of hypocrisy that is nothing more than laziness in disguise. The laziness is about not seeking and developing the better ways that already exist.
A New Silent Majority exists today. I am the integrity development expert who first coined this term in this IntegrityWatch Blog earlier this month (August 2008). The New Silent Majority is disgusted with spin on all sides because they know that this form of lack of integrity has been destroying the very foundations of our remarkable political system. The New Silent Majority responds not to spin but to truly transparent education that tells the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Contrary to highly disturbing the message in the latest Batman movie, Dark Knight, The New Silent Majority is ready — aching, actually — to respond positively to those who treat them as being smart enough to arrive at high-minded decisions… once they are finally provided with the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
As perhaps the only seasoned psychologist whose specialization is integrity development, I am convinced that whichever candidate becomes proficient in using the creative, uplifting ways that will mobilize this New Silent Majority is the candidate who will ultimately win the upcoming election. The way this candidate will succeed is though mastering the art of being a new kind of educator, rather than continuing with the profoundly damaging and exceedingly lazy tradition of being a spin doctor.
