Why are Some People Dangerous?

Why are Some People Dangerous?

Everyone thinks and everyone communicates.

• Everyone thinks, but people use varying degrees of logical rationality, ranging from low to high levels.
• Everyone communicates, but people communicate in ways that make them more or less inspirational.

These two characteristics; "rationality" and "inspirational communication skills", suggest four categories of people: The Best, the Most, the Many and the Dangerous!

The Best

The Best occurs when both these positive attributes are combined in the same people.

The result is a group of people who are logically rational AND are highly communicative, persuasive and inspiring. These are the great leaders, of whom Martin Luther King would be a terrific example.

The Most

Most of us are not great leaders. Most people are rational, but NOT gifted with amazing communication skills and powers of persuasion. But we live our lives according to rational principles, or at least we try to.

The Many

Sadly, there are a lot of people who fall into the category of "behaving irrationally and having poor communication skills". These people generally fail in life because they fail to do the right things, or even do the wrong thing. They don't communicate well, they lack motivation and a few turn to crime.

The Dangerous

The dangerous people are those who look and sound good, and are highly effective speakers, but their ideas are irrational. Their policies are based on a set of ill-defined terms, vague assumptions, illogical conclusions, obvious contradictions and faulty statistics. This in turn produces a non-sensical, dangerous philosophy, which they then expertly communicate to the Most and the Many.

Houston, we have a problem!

Members of "the Dangerous" can easily be mistaken for being members of "the Best".

The Most and the Many are likely to be duped by the Dangerous. The Dangerous person is believed to be one of the Best, mostly because of their persuasive linguistics. But simmering under the rhetoric, is a heap of self-contradictory, destructive and dangerous policies, that wreak havoc.

The most obvious example of the Dangerous but irrational speaker is Hitler, but I am sure you can think of more contemporary examples.

What are we to do with this information?

Whenever we are listening to the confident experts and politicians. We should take the contents of this grid into account.

We should ask ourselves, "Are we listening to the Best people speak, or rather the Dangerous?"

The logical test questions that we should apply to any speaker claiming to be an expert are these:

1. Are they using ill-defined terms, dubious or hazy definitions?
2. Is their whole case based upon unstated or vague assumptions?
3. When put into practice, do their policies create obvious, glaring contradictions?
4. Are the experts over-dependent on dubious statistics?
5. Are their policies wreaking havoc amongst the Most and the Many?

If the answers to these questions is Yes, then we may NOT be listening to the Best people.

Definition: dangerous speaker

In public communication, a dangerous speaker is a speaker who sounds clear and inspiring yet builds the talk on weak logic, vague words and poor facts, hides big faults or conflicts in the plan, and pushes listeners to act in ways that harm themselves or others.

Article Summary

Great oratory hides risk when reason is weak; test every bold claim for clear terms, sound facts and logical flow, and you will spot dangerous speakers before their words mislead the crowd.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are some questions that frequently get asked about this topic during our training sessions.

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Did You Know: Key Statistics

About the Author: Chris Farmer

Chris Farmer is the founder of the Corporate Coach Group and has many years' experience in training leaders and managers, in both the public and private sectors, to achieve their organisational goals, especially during tough economic times. He is also well aware of the disciplines and problems associated with running a business.

Over the years, Chris has designed and delivered thousands of training programmes and has coached and motivated many management teams, groups and individuals. His training programmes are both structured and clear, designed to help delegates organise their thinking and, wherever necessary, to improve their techniques and skills.

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