I signed up for this class because I was impressed by Eben's speech at the assembly where we were introduced to the electives. Here was someone who could somehow get away with saying what he thought - without any hedging or toning down. I thought, "I want to be able to do that".

For the last few weeks, I have been trying to figure out how it is done. How do you communicate original ideas - ideas that your audience might not like - without getting killed or simply ignored? I've always thought the solution must involve stealth. Put on a mask that reassures your audience while you get your message across under the radar. Take Holmes - a guy with some pretty radical ideas. But he had such a sharp way of expressing them that you can't help but listen. "Let's cut the bullshit. Here's what's really going on..." It plays into how Americans like to think of themselves - taking some European relic like the common law and cutting out all the fat, making it better and more efficient. Or take Scalia. Believing that the world is how Thomas Aquinas says it is, is not exactly normal or generally accepted these days. But he gets his message across (whether or not you like it and whether or not it's internally consistent) through his writing. Similarly, Eben mentioned Thurgood Marshall's strategic watching of TV. In short, you need a mask to protect yourself if you're going to think differently in a public space.

But, I'm beginning to think that you need more than deceptive tactics in order to get through to people with whom you disagree. I think we've been posing the question of how we can have meaningful careers in terms of survival - I certainly did in my paper PatrickCroninFirstPaper. "How am I going to make enough money to pay off loans?" It's going to take more than just techniques and knowledge gleaned from Leff and Holmes and Black to answer this question in a creative way. "How do I use my license to work for justice?" I think it's going to take courage to answer these questions, which is scary because it's hard to tell whether you have that courage or not.

Perhaps the way we learn to communicate original ideas persuasively, and by extension making things happen using words (for money), is simply by doing it - by practicing.

-- PatrickCronin - 05 Mar 2009

Patrick, I think you are right that certain individuals are extremely skilled at placing radical ideas in very stealth ways. I recently read an essay by Frederick Douglass, "The Constitution of the United States: Is it Pro-Slavery or Anti-Slavery?" in which Douglass makes a fairly compelling argument for why the Constitution opposed slavery. His arguments are almost deceptive, but it was amazing that he claimed in 1860 that it was "obvious" that the Constitution opposed slavery. As you also mention, other individuals are extremely skilled at putting their radical ideas at the forefront. Personally, I think the key to a great writer is knowing which tactic to use at a particular time.

-- LaurenRosenberg - 06 Mar 2009