Pepper Power Bear Spray Analysis

C H A P T E R

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Be a Critical Reader, Listener, and Viewer
You may be thinking, “This chapter doesn’t apply to me. I have no trouble comprehending the messages I read, hear, and see.” But this chapter isn’t about basic comprehension. It is about analyzing and evaluating the messages you receive and deciding whether they are worthy of acceptance. Chances are you haven’t had much training in this kind of reading, listening, and viewing. In this chapter, you’ll learn specific strategies for analyzing and evaluating messages.

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ISBN: 0-558-34171-3

ot long ago, while searching the Internet, I encountered a reference to an article describing “Pepper Power Bear Spray,” which was created by a survivor of a grizzly bear attack for defense
Yet, the violent crime rate in Roxbury, the black area, is four times the rate of that in South Boston. If poverty caused crime, one would expect the numbers to be closer to equal. This entire paragraph is the author’s interpretation of the facts he presented in the previous paragraphs. No, the formula is more likely the other way around: crime causes poverty. The more crime, the less incentive for businesspeople to locate businesses in that area. Store owners must charge consumers more to offset losses caused by theft and higher insurance premiums. Homeowners, apartment dwellers, and business people pay increased security costs to combat the ever-present threat of theft or violent crime. This impoverishes
This is why a mad leader like Hitler won a large popularity even among intelligent and responsible people and why Jim Jones’s followers killed their children and committed suicide in Guyana. Impassioned, eloquent expression tends to excite a favorable response, just as lifeless, inarticulate, error-filled expression prompts a negative response. Compare these two passages: 1. Ain’t right to treat some folks good and others bad. If a man don’t treat all equal, he ain’t much of a man. 2. To achieve success in a competitive world, you must honor the first principle of success: Treat well those people who can benefit you, and ignore the others. The first passage may seem less appealing than the second. And yet it contains an idea most philosophers would enthusiastically endorse, whereas the second contains an idea most would find reprehensible. Careful thinkers are able to appraise the passages correctly because they are aware that expression can deceive. Such thinkers make a special effort to separate form from content before judging. Thus they are able to say, “This idea is poorly expressed but profound” and “This idea is well expressed but