Speaking Truth to Power

By James M. Jackson

After deciding to become a published author, I made a conscious decision to avoid politics in my blogs and online commentary. Because I have an interest in finance, many of my early blogs related to financial topics with an emphasis on personal finance. Those blogs were fact-based, and although they expressed my opinions, they avoided espousal of any political views.

As my writing turned more toward fiction, so did my blogging and online commentary. Again, I avoided politics, instead concentrating on the craft and business of writing.

I continued to use my financial knowledge, especially regarding Social Security, Medicare, and pension plans, to address factual errors I saw in others’ blogs and social media posts. It didn’t matter to me whether I agreed with the other person’s position; what I tried to do was point out factual misunderstandings. Similarly, I used my MBA and general business knowledge to shed light on the financial concerns of writers.

I was born a numbers guy. My mother taught high school math. My father was a statistician, and from him I learned at a young age the difference between correlation and causation. In a college course Dad taught, he had a slide that showed the correlation between the number of stork nests in some European city (Rotterdam?) and the number of births in the city. Turned out that the more stork nests there were, the more babies were born. The correlation was huge and continued for years!

Did storks deliver babies in that city? (The purported causality.) No. Rotterdam babies came into the world in the normal way. The connection between these two sets of highly correlated statistics occurs because the city constructed houses with flat roofs—perfect conditions for storks to build nests. As the population of the city grew, the number of human births grew, the number of flat-roofed houses grew, and the number of stork nests grew.

Mark Twain attributed to British Prime Minister Disraeli the quote that there are “lies, damned lies, and statistics.” To that I would like to add an amendment: There are lies, damned lies, statistics, and politics using statistics. By politics, I include politicians and those who frame political arguments, be they think-tanks, “news” media, or so-called influencers.

In 1955, The American Friends Service Committee issued a publication Speak Truth to Power: A Quaker Search for an Alternative to Violence[i]. It addressed peacemaking in a world of violence. The phrase, speaking truth to power, has been picked up and used/misused by many organizations and movements since then. The introduction to the 1955 publication indicates the idea of speaking truth to power is taken from the charge given to 18^th century Friends to make the effort to speak from the deepest insight of the Quaker faith.

In the publication, the Friends claimed to speak to power in three senses:

• To those who hold high places in our national life and bear the terrible responsibility of making decisions for war or peace.
• To the American people who are the final reservoir of power in this country and whose values and expectations set the limits for those who exercise authority.
• To the idea of Power itself, and its impact on Twentieth Century life.

While I do not share the Quaker faith, I have come to realize I do feel strongly about speaking truth. There should and must be free discussion about what policies our governments—local, state, and federal—should implement. As a fiscal conservative and social liberal, I may or may not agree with those policies. That is of little importance, because, through our representative election process over time, the body politic at large decides policies. What is critically important to me is that when discussing actual or proposed policies, those in power, politicians and media, use facts to argue the merits of the policies. Facts about our current situation. Facts about the effect of the proposed policy.

I feel called to speak to power when politics uses statistics and lies to obfuscate the truth behind the policies.

If this decision adversely affects my writing business, so be it.

Does this mean my future Writers Who Kill blogs will be political, speaking truth to power? No. They will be about my writing world, just as this blog is about my writing world. And yet, that, too, is part of speaking to power.

I look forward to your comments.

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[i] Speak Truth to Power: A Quaker Search for an Alternative to Violence https://quaker.org/legacy/sttp.html?form=MG0AV3

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James M. Jackson authors the Seamus McCree series. Full of mystery and suspense, these thrillers explore financial crimes, family relationships, and what happens when they mix. To learn more information about Jim and his books, check out his website, https://jamesmjackson.com. You can sign up for his newsletter (and get to read a free Seamus McCree short story).