Current Application
A modern version of attacking the messenger can be seen when persons blame the media for presenting bad news about a favored cause, person, organization, etc. The fact remains that 'shooting the messenger may be a time-honored emotional response to unwelcome news, but it is not a very effective method of remaining well-informed.'
Getting rid of the messenger may also be a tactical move; but the danger is that an ethos of non-disclosure may follow any hostile response to negative feedback. 'People learn very quickly where this is the case, and will studiously avoid giving any negative feedback; thus the "Emperor" continues with the self-delusion....obviously this is not a recipe for success.' Barbara Ehrenreich in Bright-sided/Smile or Die argued that a culture of "thinking positive" so as to 'purge "negative people" from the ranks... the bubble-itis ' of the 2000s.
Reaction to whistleblowing organization WikiLeaks led to calls not to shoot the messenger.
Read more about this topic: Shooting The Messenger
Famous quotes containing the words current and/or application:
“We set up a certain aim, and put ourselves of our own will into the power of a certain current. Once having done that, we find ourselves committed to usages and customs which we had not before fully known, but from which we cannot depart without giving up the end which we have chosen. But we have no right, therefore, to claim that we are under the yoke of necessity. We might as well say that the man whom we see struggling vainly in the current of Niagara could not have helped jumping in.”
—Anna C. Brackett (1836–1911)
“The human mind is capable of excitement without the application of gross and violent stimulants; and he must have a very faint perception of its beauty and dignity who does not know this.”
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