imreallyperplexed
Council Member
When the Fatman gave his keynote address on Tuesday, he talked about how he "inherited" his "bluntness" from his mother who had emphasized to him that people respect him than that people like him. One way that he gained respect (in his narrative) was by speaking "uncomfortable truths" to people who did not want to listen. Part of the reason that I chose the subject line that I chose was to highlight the dangers of that strategy. There is no doubt that Chris Christie is obese. It is an "uncomfortable truth." And I suspect that he doesn't like to hear it. In fact, I suspect that he gets angry and upset if people call him the "fatman" because they don't show him enough respect. But being called a fatman when you are obese is an uncomfortable truth.
However, the subject of "speaking the truth" brought another story to mind for me. I cut my working teeth as a practicing R&D engineer working with cadres of other R&D engineers for a major defense/aerospace contractor. Where I worked, there was definitely an engineering culture. One of the prime characteristics of an engineering culture is that engineers - like Chris Christie - are blunt. They are particularly blunt when they disagree. Two engineers who disagree are rarely civil in my experience. However, engineers also believe that when they are blunt that they are "speaking the (objective) truth." After I got into the business world, I was talking about this to a colleague of mine who was not an engineer and pointed out the following. Engineers, he said, always "speak their minds" (i.e. tell you what the perceive to be the truth) but do not necessarily "speak the truth" (i.e. the "objective" truth).
To me, Chris Christie's (aka the Fatman) problem is that - like your average engineer - he does not understand the difference between "speaking his mind" and "speaking the truth."
However, the subject of "speaking the truth" brought another story to mind for me. I cut my working teeth as a practicing R&D engineer working with cadres of other R&D engineers for a major defense/aerospace contractor. Where I worked, there was definitely an engineering culture. One of the prime characteristics of an engineering culture is that engineers - like Chris Christie - are blunt. They are particularly blunt when they disagree. Two engineers who disagree are rarely civil in my experience. However, engineers also believe that when they are blunt that they are "speaking the (objective) truth." After I got into the business world, I was talking about this to a colleague of mine who was not an engineer and pointed out the following. Engineers, he said, always "speak their minds" (i.e. tell you what the perceive to be the truth) but do not necessarily "speak the truth" (i.e. the "objective" truth).
To me, Chris Christie's (aka the Fatman) problem is that - like your average engineer - he does not understand the difference between "speaking his mind" and "speaking the truth."
