A number of years ago, I gave my first – and last –
presentation on the topic of budget development for Salvation Army units. I got
good ratings from the participants, at least for entertainment value, but my
use of a certain video clip as an introduction may not have found favor with
the people in charge.
The film clip is a classic: Abbott and Costello need to pay
back rent on a room. The landlord tells them they owe thirteen weeks at seven
dollars a week. Lou Costello proceeds to prove to the landlord that he only
owes twenty-eight dollars. He divides, multiplies, and adds, and each time the
total is twenty-eight dollars, not the ninety-one dollars my calculator
displays when I punch in the numbers. And no, he didn’t use the incomprehensible
new math that the lovely Madelyn Simone is learning in first grade. If you’ve
never watched the scene, take a google on YouTube under “Seven into
Twenty-Eight,” because if you don’t see it, you won’t believe how easy Costello
makes it look.
My premise in that long-ago presentation was this: in budget
preparation, you can make numbers mean whatever you want. I’m sensing that
we’re living in a time in our country where it’s possible to make facts mean
whatever you want them to (and perhaps even to invent them, as Costello did
with his arithmetic). In attempting to educate myself on topics such as
affordable medical care, immigration reform, and proposed budget changes, I’ve listened
to various commentators, read a variety of articles on a given subject, and
even gone to the sources of information through research-based studies. Yet by
the end of my search, I feel just as confused and conned as Abbott and
Costello’s landlord did.
With the on-going attempt to “repeal and replace” the
Affordable Care Act, where are the facts? Where is the reasonable discussion
about how our government can help its people obtain and/or maintain adequate,
affordable, and accessible health care? How much will the new plan cost, the
landlord’s $91 or Lou’s $28? Where are the numbers on immigration, the facts
about immigrant terrorists versus homegrown terrorists? Where are the numbers
on how much it costs to detain, to deport? How will proposed budget cuts impact
our lives here in Ashland County? Do those making the decisions on these vital topics
receive a series of biased reports, or can they see through the various smoke
screens to some semblance of the truth?
As I was working on this column, I watched the Abbott and
Costello skit again with an eye to why it was so successful, and here’s what I
figured out. Before Lou picked up the Crayola and began to do his math on the
wall, both the landlord and I knew for a fact that 13x7 does not equal 28. But
as he divided, multiplied, and added, Lou used tactics that caught my
attention. First, he attempted to hand the landlord the money quickly, hoping
he wouldn’t notice that it wasn’t enough. Then, he used his personality to bluster
his way through. He engaged the landlord to help him, allowing him to “hold”
the “little bit a 2” for a while until he needed it. He even let the landlord
add up all the “3s,” but grabbed the crayon back to add up the seven “1s.”
I’ve seen this before, I realized. Yes, the film clip was
familiar, but I’ve also seen what linguist George Lakoff calls preemptive
framing, diversion, and deflection. By controlling the conversation, diverting
as necessary from the real issue (that 13x7 does not equal 28), and deflecting
(grabbing the crayon out of the landlord’s hand and changing direction),
Costello convinces the landlord that his argument is correct, and the landlord
walks away with an empty pocket (he had made a deal Lou to forgive the rent if
he could prove his point).
It happens in families and governments, in the workplace and
even on the playground. By preemptive framing, diversion, and deflection, power
is gained and we are left, like Costello’s landlord, scratching our heads and
wondering, “How did he do that?” Now you know. Maybe, seven times thirteen
really is twenty-eight.
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