Being Persuaded
Posted by emilyzerbel on April 16, 2008
Emily Zerbel
April 16, 2008
English – 121
Response 6
Persuasion
We are reading again parts from Han Fei Tzu, “The Difficulties of Persuasion”. I think this piece is definitely right on with all the examples Tzu gives on when you are trying to persuade someone and they have to be willing to be persuaded before you even have a chance. Its kind of like when you are teaching someone to learn to ride a bike, they have to want to learn before they can do it for the first time, and then either they can or they cant. It’s just a matter of knowing that there is a possibility for change. Everyone has to keep an open mind and not think the worst of people if they do try and tell you something other than how you truly feel.
At the end of this reading Tzu gives a good example on how people should have an open mind about things to be able to be persuaded. “The beast called a dragon can be tamed and trained to the point where you may ride on its back. But on the underside of its throat it has scales a foot in diameter that curl back from the body, and anyone who chances to brush against them is sure to die.” This I believe is saying that you can talk to someone and share the same ideas and be able to go with the same ideas that they have, yet there are others that may not share those same thoughts and they will never have that option.
There are people out there that have very closed minds and don’t ever want to change their opinion for anyone, or even listen to others ideas. They are pretty much stuck in their own ways because they believe their way is the best and only way to go. Those kind of people are very hard to have a discussion with, and even harder to debate with. Debating meaning the act of persuasion. Tzu puts it very nicely that there are going to be those people that get hurt, not literally hurt, but the ones that can never persuade the beast. But there will still be the ones that can ride on the back of the beast, those being the ones that share the same thoughts as the beast itself. I also believe this is how Tzu sees all rulers and emperors, people that do not have open minds and are only for what they have always thought. They don’t want to hear what others think because they will do it their own way.
