FACIPULATOR LBJ

I disagree with Gutmann and Thompson, I think that lying is far worse than bending the truth. In a lie no one can see past it, while a manipulation has some truth to it. I see G&T's point but I still feel that lying is worse. LBJ did not break any rules, he was simply acting in his role as senate majority leader. This point was taken out of context in class, I never said it was ethical to manipulate, I simply meant there were no laws broken. This makes it harder to detect manipulation for it does not hold stipulations that lies do. I think that may be the worst thing about it, that there is this muddy middle by which a politician can fulfill his/her role.

However, to stay constant I still believe that while manipulation may be present to an extent, I do not believe that politics is thus inherently dirty. I can live with politicians be a little risky after all we should include rationality and human nature in our case studies. The problem I still have is the case that was used. If it were to be Dick Cheney misleading the World about WMD's, then I think I would feel a little different. This makes me think that we simply should bend over for cases that I define good. Although, would everyone trust ME in deciding what is good? Probably not. It seems impossible to come up with laws to decide what manipulation is justified and what manipulation is not. Maybe it is our system that is not justified. Yep more confused now.