SPIN CITY

Are you tired of those annoying "self-promoters"? Have you had enough of that successful person who insists on mentioning that they won a race and broke the lap record, when you would much rather they beat themselves up over the fact that they ran over a cat 7 years ago or something?

Have you had enough of being told that you should buy a particular product because it may be good?

Stick around, I may have the answer!

I don't think I've ever heard the term "spin doctor" so many times as I did at the recent Wakefield Park event. Somebody has obviously learned a new word.

It was a great weekend- kart ran well, good results, met some new people, and so on. But a select few seemed to spend all weekend telling me (because I'm a newbie) all their unflattering opinions of a particular individual. It seems this individual has made quite a stir as a self-promoter who talks up their achievements.

So the word "spin doctor" was thrown around rather impressively, and there was many a complaint of how nobody likes it when someone tries to sell them something, and so on. You can see how this can be a problem. It must be hard to go through life hating those things which are, lets face it, everywhere and a part of daily life.

So I thought I'd pen this little piece to help some of these unfortunate people with their lamentations.

It's best illustrated as a mock conversation with an uninformed person, who we will call "Johnny". That's always a popular name for a token uninformed person.

Johnny: So, tell me...how would you describe superkarting?
Well Johnny, superkarting, like most motorsports, is shockingly bad for the environment, pumps out hordes of greenhouse gases, wastes a massive amount of natural resources and money which could be cancelling third world debt, and is full of people with very big egos who would be perfectly fine without it if they really gave it some thought...
Johnny: But...um...I thought you liked it!!
(Laughing) Actually superkarting is a great test of skill, relatively inexpensive, is good for families, loads of fun, and like most motorsports it encourages efficient engineering practices which can be passed on to many industries to improve the breed.
Well then...which statement is the truth?
Actually Johnny, they were both true!
Wha..?
You see Johnny, they were both true, but "spun" in different ways to better suit the position of the person saying it. Obviously, because I LIKE superkarting, I would never tell someone the first statement. I'd rather they didn't focus on those things. So I would use the second statement because it focuses on the positives.
"Spun", you say
Yes, "spin" is just a slang way of referring to how you present something. If you like it, you'll spin it that way. If you don't like it, you spin in the alternate way. Neither way is neccessarily incorrect. I suspect most of us are grown-up enough to work out for ourselves what we believe or buy.
So Spin is not neccessarily a bad thing?
Not neccessarily. If you want to "promote" something, you have to focus only on the positive things. Some might call this "spin". But Spin can be used for bad as well as good...
Bit like religion..?
Let's not go there, Johnny...
So how can we help all these people who don't like "spin", the ones who complain about it, being told what to buy, and so on...?
Well yes, Johnny, there is an answer for them. It's called COMMUNISM..