Janet Akselrud
Professor Gianoulis
ENG 111
21 November 2019
Are Words Nothing more than Words?
Words, printed in books, words, texted through phones, words, collected as thoughts, and words, spoken at home: they surround us. Remember a time when the words that came out of someone’s mouth were unforgivable, as real as a knife plunged into your heart. Remember a time when words of comfort struck you, a moment capable of altering lives. Think about how clear the memory is, of the first time you heard a profession of love. Think about a quote that you carry within, the one you connected with at first sight. Are words simply just words? Can they ever be just words? No. Language is powerful, widespread, and readily available. Simultaneously, some of the strategies it provides are often underestimated. Distraction, usually viewed in a negative sense, is an under researched strategy which can be applied in many areas of life for positive purposes.
When thinking about distraction, the first images that pop into my head are those of phones snatching away an owners attention. I also imagine the companies, which have studied and mastered distraction, on the front page of articles that warn of excess screen time resulting in a decreased ability to focus. Along with that, it’s no wonder distraction is looked down upon when politicians are exploiting distraction to hurt their opponents. In “Tarring Opponents as Extremists Really Can Work” Badger describes the power of words used in politics. She explains saying “ No one wants to go on record attacking the value of security, or liberty. But you can do the next best thing: attack the people standing near it” (Badger, 437). There is a fine line between influence and manipulation and, tarring an opponent’s reputation, resulting in the tarring of policies they stand for, goes into the realm of manipulation. This tactic can work so well that “sometimes, simply calling advocates ‘feminists’ [..] is sufficient enough to tap into extremist associations” (Badger, 439). Tarring an opponent distracts from the real issues at hand and can cause people to vote against what they care about. Combined together, all of these images create a negative perspective surrounding distraction.
Biases dictating how bad distraction is supposed to be act like a screen preventing the pursuit of new knowledge. In a police precinct, distraction and language can be underestimated to the extent that officers are taught control tactics based on theory rather than evidence. In “The Dork Police,” Michael Gardner, a veteran sergeant, brings readers behind the scenes of law enforcement. He begins by saying that “Traditionally, police officers are limited to only four choices for controlling situations- visual and verbal persuasion, chemical irritant, impact weapon, and deadly force” (Gardner, 426). Out of the four traditional methods, only one lacks inflicting physical pain. Despite that, “In training, most emphasis was on weaponry defense” (Gardner, 426). If physical force was truly the most effective way for officers to maneuver risky situations, causing physical harm to a suspect would commonly be justified. In any case, who would question a strategy that works well?
While handling domestic disputes, the most dangerous part of police work, Gardner and his partner became curious to test out visual and verbal persuasion. They experimented “with ways of startling subjects into confusion” and, in a surprising twist, began receiving less return calls saving the hassle of future trips (Gardner, 426). With such evidence, it’s clear the power of distraction was overlooked.
Similarly to the police precinct, Barack Obama, during his presidency in the United States, was once betrayed by adhering to theory and saved by the power of distraction. Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, a data scientist, used public data of what people search up on google to learn more about the world. One thing he discovered and shared in “Everybody Lies” was that after the San Bernardino attack “the president said: ‘It is the responsibility of all americans- of every faith to reject discrimination.’ But searches calling muslims ‘terrorists’,’bad’,’violent’, and ‘evil’, doubled during and shortly after the speech” (Davidowitz). The things Obama instinctively thought would calm down the nation actually got people more riled up.
There was one thing in Obamas speech that had a positive effect and that was calling muslim americans “sports heros”, and “women is uniform” because, “for the first time in more than a year, the top googled noun after ‘Muslim’ was not “terrorists”[…] It was ‘athletes’, followed by ‘soldiers’” (Davidowitz). This success came from distraction in the form of sparking curiosity and offering new images. Being made aware of this evidence, Obama’s next speech was modified. This time, Obama “spent little time insisting on the value of tolerance. Instead, he focused overwhelmingly on provoking people’s curiosity and changing their perceptions of Muslim Americans” (Davidowitz). Google data showed “Many of the hateful, rageful searches against Muslims dropped in the hours afterwards” (Davidowtz). Learning from mistakes, and putting more research into understanding the effects of words in different situations can have a difference as big as affecting the racism of a whole country.
The bias that discourages questioning theory also prevents the recognition of beneficial distraction that already exists. Watching the way parents handle kids having a tantrum, some of the strategies Gardner and his partner used could have seemed obvious. Arriving at the site of a domestic dispute, Gardner and his partner had to deal with subjects in emotional distress. “When people get violent they’re behaving worse than childish”(Gardner, 429). People can be blinded by emotions and many methods Gardner and his partner tried were successful because they were able to bring the subjects attention away from the fight. When kids get upset or angry, though parents will do anything to get the child to calm down, the goal is to distract. Strategies may include asking a child if he wants his toy, singing the child’s favorite song, or mimicking the child’s facial expressions. The same ideas work with emotional adults. During one call, the situation was quickly diffused when Gardner focused on asking the subject questions (Gardner, 428). At another call, Gardner matched the tone of the suspect “and let him express himself”(Gardner, 429). Soon enough, the suspect became more relaxed and stopped disagreeing with everything being said.
Visual and verbal persuasion help police officers enhance control over others. As one of it’s positive purposes, maybe distraction could be a strategy added to pedestrian self defense courses. Most self defense courses focus on physical combat and most advertisements containing the words “self defense” are kung fu, jujitsu, or karate classes. In itself, the words “self defense” mean to defend yourself from harm but there is nothing in the definition that means physical contact has to occur. Distracting a perpetrator with questions, statements, or hand gestures could work just as well as punching the perpetrator in the face. Either strategy, when used, has to be done right. The person throwing a punch must be balanced, in correct posture, and have the ability to aim. The person using distraction must decide fast which strategy to use and string together the words they wish to say.
It’s possible that not everyone can learn distraction because it’s not as simple as remembering to ask a question. For example in “Tarring Opponents As Extremists Can Really Work” Badger pointed out that only some people were fooled by this trick and no one knows why others were immune. Different tactics work on different people, and when depending solely on one tactic there is no chance everyone will be affected the same way. In “The Dork Police” Badger noted that if the subject “didn’t respond to our initial statement, that signaled us to try something else” (Badger, 428). Badger and his partner needed to be flexible, trying strategy after strategy until they found one that worked. To incorporate distraction into a self defense courses, students would need to learn how to be flexible and how to think on their feet. In order to figure out how to teach the art of distraction, more research would need to be conducted. It’s important to study which strategies under the umbrella of distraction work best, and which methods of teaching manage to communicate how to execute these strategies in a real situation.
Visual and verbal persuasion also help police officers enhance control over themselves. Distracion doesn’t necessarily need to be used on others. When Gardner and his partner banged loudly on a subject’s door, they felt alarmed in zone red (Badger, 426). When they knocked with a catchy jingle they stayed in orange zone, alert but not expecting a fight (Badger, 426). In everyday life, if I feel myself getting angry at someone and about to have a conflict, I can slow down and distract myself. Acting Impulsively could be the wrong move. Some of the tactics Gardner used did not come to him instinctively. In one case when a violent subject pushed verbally Gardner says “we instinctively wanted to ‘push’ back with an ‘attack’ statement. Yet the patience of our pull statement always minimized the force of our arrest” (Gardner, 428). People attack when they want to cause harm, are not thinking clearly, or feel threatened. When they receive a response that shows there is no need to feel threatened, they begin to relax. Gardener originally wanted to reply with an “attack” statement because he was also feeling threatened and had the impulse to act on blinding emotions. It’s important to remember that instincts aren’t always right.
Learning to use distraction as a tool could decrease the number of physical altercations that occur in schools, workplaces, and in the field of police work. Distraction, along with the other tools language provides could be the key to healthier interactions overall. Many questions regarding what to teach and how can be answered by research, and the only way to initiate research is to increase public interest. There already lies evidence that distraction is powerful, all that’s left is to push past the barrier of bias, to question theory, and to be aware of the possibilities that lie ahead.
Words Cited
Badger, Emily. “Tarring Opponents as Extremists Really Can Work.” Language
Awareness. Ed. Paul Eschholz. Ed. Alfred Rosa Ed. Virginia Clark. Boston:
Macmillan Learning, 2005. 437-439. Print.
Davidowitz, Seth. Everybody lies: how Google search reveals our darkest secrets.The
Guardian. 9 Jul. 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jul/09/
everybody-lies-how-google-reveals-darkest-secrets-seth-stephens-davidowitz
Gardner, Michael. “The Dork Police: Further Adventures of Flex Cop.” Language
Awareness. Ed. Paul Eschholz. Ed. Alfred Rosa Ed. Virginia Clark. Boston:
Macmillan Learning, 2005. 417-423. Print.
