As a result of consulting a friend, I have come across an incredible finding, I knew it existed but I would never have imagined what I have witnessed.
I am talking about a very particular management style, nothing to do with the traditional styles indicated in the literature, it is Management in the style of the Goddess Apate, unconventional and very artistic style.
But who is the Goddess Apate? According to Greek mythology Apate was one of the daemons, who personified deception or fraud. It was, along with her male correspondent, her brother Dolos who came out of Pandora's box. Both were sons of Érebo and Nix, and used to be accompanied by the pseudologists “las mentiras”.
Before going into the subject, I think it necessary to contextualize two of the fundamental concepts of the sophist Gorgias: "deception" (εξαπάτηση) and "opportunity" (ευκαιρία), concepts that amalgamate them and draw on the reflections of the great philosopher, poet, musician and philologist German Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche we will find a point of intersection "Rhetoric".
Sophist, who were the sophists ?, after the Presocratic Philosophy, the center of interest of the philosophy is going to undergo a radical change: from concern for nature (physis) it is going to become concern for man and his coexistence in social life (polis), those who starred in this change were the Sophists, considered the founders of demagoguery ((from the Greek δῆμος -dēmos-, people and ἄγειν -agein-, to lead) is a strategy used to achieve political power).
Sophist, simply means wise or expert in knowledge, but unfortunately they went down in history as merchants of wisdom (the first mercenaries of knowledge), their knowledge had a price and demanded payment for their classes: the sophists educated the children of the Athenian elites to succeed in the public square. This assessment is mainly due to the criticism of Socrates and Plato to these thinkers.
The thought of the Sophists is characterized by skepticism and relativism, the truth cannot be known and morally everything is allowed. According to these thinkers, all knowledge has a merely occasional, relative value, according to the cultural and historical conditions of each moment. These interesting characters reject the existence of the Universal Absolute Principles (the same for all people, at all times and places) which we find in the world of Ethics, Politics, Justice, Law, etc., etc.
Good and evil depends on the legislation of the moment, and this legislation is somewhat conventional (a simple agreement between people, and there can be no absolute patterns of behavior). For the Sophists, the wise man is the one who knows how to argue to seduce his interlocutors and lead them where he wants, that is, the good rhetorician is wise (language does not help to clarify the truth, but is the art of seduction outside of the truth and justice of the speeches). The Sophists did not intend to form just men and good citizens, but rather effective specialists in politics and law.
And so in history, we find the master of teachers, the sophist Gorgias de Leontinos (490-380 BC), who highlighted the immense power of the word, the magic of logos that seduces, persuades and transforms the soul, and the compared to the action of drugs on the body. Also language can heal or make a soul sick. With his verbal magic, the speaker enjoys immense power. But the speaker to achieve his ends, must be a good psychologist, who notices the mental disposition of his listeners, and can thus take advantage of his inclinations, sniffing the opportune moment "Kairós". The American author Eric Charles White defines it as "the fleeting moment in which, metaphorically speaking, an opening appears (that is, the precise place) that must necessarily be crossed to reach or achieve the proposed objective", to move them,excite and convince them attending not to the true, but to the plausible.
Thus, for the teacher Gorgias, the deceptive character of logos is indissoluble in their persuasive function, and it would not be an exaggeration to say that the value of discourse is measured by its ability to produce deceit and persuasion, rather than to account for a truth. In this way, the term "deception" refers to the act by means of which someone is involuntarily deviated and without realizing it, from their way of thinking. Thus, the distinction between what is true and falsehood is very little relevant to the nature of deception where through the manipulation (persuasion and deception) of the speaker, the listener changes his way of thinking.At this point I think it convenient to place the accent and make the difference between the lie that could be an unconscious act to ignore the truth versus the deception (apate) which is a conscious and premeditated process that involves concealment and conversion, supported by "Kairós ”, Between what is in the mind and what is manifested with the facts.
For Plato, this master of rhetoric, skillful manipulator and specialist in the techniques of deception and persuasion, who is not concerned with discovering the truth, but rather making his point of view succeed in the discussion, is one of the most dangerous characters of all. the times.
The firm disposition to debate, argumentation and the use of the word to persuade, dissuade or convince, was cunning and long encouraged and developed by the Greeks since time immemorial. Back then in the vigorous and complex urban life, rhetoric was closely and inextricably linked to the establishment of democracy, legal litigation and the intense development of communication and persuasion techniques through the symbols of language, "only in the form The politics of democracy begins the excessive valuation of discourse, now becoming the greatest instrument of peer power. ”
The professor of the humanities department of the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Cali, Mgtr. Julián Fernando Trujillo Amaya in his article "Nietzsche: Rhetoric, Metaphor and Philosophy" points out that for Nietzsche the origin of language is metaphorical. There is no knowledge without language, since all knowing is already an interpreting, and all interpretation rests on language. But the language is based on the capacity and natural tendency of the human being to create metaphors, "there are no intrinsic expressions or intrinsic knowledge without a metaphor. Knowing is simply operating with the preferred metaphors.".
And he continues telling us: The famous German philosopher showed in his reflections on rhetorical figures to language as a work of art. The force of the image is what acts and determines the theatrical and experiential character of language and its occurrence as a way of life within the framework of community life practice. Language is not a mere instrument of communication, but a work of art, an unconscious artistic creation of human beings, "what distinguishes man from animal depends on the ability to make intuitive metaphors volatilize into a schema, it is that is, the ability to dissolve an image into a concept. " Reality is the result of this thought through metaphors, images and words put in a situation in daily interaction with others and with the world.Language determines the staging and way of life that characterizes human existence with others in a shared world. the interrelation between grammar, logic and metaphysics constitutes one of the greatest obstacles to dismantle the linguistic network that stifles and restricts freedom of thought and expression, “The 'reason' in language, oh, what a deceiving old female! I am afraid that we are not going to get rid of God because we continue to believe in grammar. ”I am afraid that we are not going to get rid of God because we continue to believe in grammar. ”I am afraid that we are not going to get rid of God because we continue to believe in grammar. ”
Es decir, para vivir y afirmar la vida necesitamos del arte en cada momento, sólo la fuerza artística nos permite eludir la arbitrariedad y rigidez imponente de la gramática, los conceptos y la lógica: “existen dos tipos de fuerza artística; la fuerza productora de imágenes y la selectora de las mismas”, la retórica juega con ambas y las potencia a través de sus tropos (cambio de dirección de una expresión que se desvía de su contenido original para adoptar otro contenido) y figuras.
On the other hand, we find the article “Language and will to power. The rhetoric in Nietzsche as apate and kairós ”by Zaida Olvera, who points out that Nietzsche associates conscience and conceptual language with the figure of the slave because it is this that represents the forgetfulness of the body and submission to transcendent values (God, I, right, etc.). However, the activity of consciousness is indisputably artistic, since it does not cease to produce appearances based on a language that comes from a force as powerful as the creative instinct (will to power); but such activity ignores itself as art, ignores its ancestry. On the contrary, the master figure represents privileged knowledge about the world as an appearance and about the artistic character of consciousness.We call this knowledge "appearance consciousness".
Thanks to this awareness of appearance (knowledge) it is possible to listen to one's own great reason and be virtuous, both in what is said and in what is done.
We are almost nearing completion, but before it is necessary to point out the POWER of the words, for this I will lean on the professor of Spanish Language at the University of Navarra, Manuel Casado Velarde, who in his article "The Power of Words: Language and Manipulation ”, points out that for some decades now, language theorists have considered linguistic behavior as an action. We know that, in fact, there are actions that can only be carried out through words, such as apologizing, promising something, asking for forgiveness, complaining, thanking, etc.
Such is the importance of language that recently, under the influence of the American Anthropological Association, it has been developed, especially in the academic and journalistic environments of the USA, what they called “politically correct” language. This current starts from the idea that, if we change the language that some consider discriminatory, it will change reality. "Let's change the words, and things will change. It would become the philosophical-political motto of many who, until not so long ago, followed the conviction that, by revolutionizing the economic structure, art, law, and people, in short, the "superstructure". From this new consciousness, or awareness, the correction of reality would follow. "
In this way, the politically correct language coats voices or expressions - commonly used by governments, politicians and the media - as well as: users of addictive substances instead of drug addicts, collateral damage instead of civilian victims, punctual collection of water instead of river diversion, economic slowdown instead of crisis, blind instead of blind, repatriation instead of expulsion, ethnic cleansing instead of racist killing, person of color instead of black, etc.
Personally, I consider that this politically correct language could become a double-edged sword, that is, in some cases and only in some cases (using the word gypsy to refer to who cheats or deceives) its application would be well received but, in tune with Manuel Velarde, if we “clean” the language of words that contain evaluations, axiological content, for example: torture, prostitution, abortion, euthanasia, innocence, sincerity, solidarity, we would be blurring our own conscience and, in short, our humanity. "Lexical cleansing" is inevitably accompanied by a certain "cognitive cleansing," and often also "ethical cleansing."
This is all very well but ultimately what do we mean when we mention a new management style: Goddess Apate style management?
This very particular style is adopted by those characters who, thanks to a move by fate, are able to exchange their position as Gramsci's Intellectuals (operators and political leaders) in the superstructure with managerial and directive positions in the business world. This fact is only possible, thanks to the power of rhetoric. They manage to prepare the ground to pronounce the correct word (Apate) at the right moment (Kairós).
As good disciples of the great teacher Gorgias, these characters are constantly improving and optimizing the logos, which with the help of Apate and Kairós manage to dazzle their supervisors and managers in the political world, everything else comes by domino effect, yes, they manage to detonate a chain reaction that ends with sitting behind a management desk in the business world and from that moment, as if by magic, the system (company) begins to notice notable increases in delta entropy, giving it shape, color and texture to Organizational Chaos.
With small punctual and randomly obtained victories, they fail to link their rhetoric with dialectics and ethics for their correct use in praxis, rather, due to technical-administrative ignorance, their chronic organizational myopia, they have no choice but to cling to Nietzschean rhetoric, which is presented as the open antithesis of the previous one, and thus, since it does not have the necessary cognitive arguments, its purpose is not to convince (intellect), rather, to move since it is subject to aesthetics and emotional. Totally in tune with what the Mexican philosopher recognized as one of the main philosophers of Latin America, Mauricio Hardie Beuchot Puente, points out, the correct rhetoric, participates in the dialectic inasmuch as it produces reasons according to logic,and it participates in politics as soon as it produces them according to psychogogy, which is like psychology at the service of politics. By amalgamating them, persuasion occurs.
These "modern" sophists confuse a staff meeting with a "closed box" political meeting. According to their criteria, hierarchical levels in the organizational structure of the company do not make sense, therefore, they catalyze and promote quantum leaps within the organization. That of planning based on weaknesses, strengths, opportunities and threats to contribute to the achievement of strategic planning, that of the alignment of objectives, that which they call project management, that of the "Eisenhower matrix" to establish priorities, that that many call management, for them they are interesting things, but for the professors, yes, for the theoretical dreamers, according to them, all that accumulation of knowledge is only valid for the academic world.
And so, these “modern” sophists do not need all that romantic theory, the methodology they have used in their political world has worked for them, therefore, according to them, it should also work in any business organization.
In the end, when reporting to their supervisors, these sophists appeal for what characterizes them: skepticism (a philosophical current based on doubt) and relativism (a concept that maintains that the points of view have neither truth nor universal validity, but only a subjective and relative validity to the different frames of reference) and they cling to their maxim: the truth cannot be known and morally everything is allowed.
You businessman, you shareholders and the Board of Directors, be careful when selecting your managers.
Footnotes:
- Divine and semi-divine beings, intermediaries between the superior gods and men The daimon of the Ardides (means used with skill and cunning to achieve something, especially to deceive or avoid deception) and bad arts It deals with the study of written texts, through which he tries to reconstruct, as faithfully as possible, their original meaning with the support of the culture that underlies them Period of the history of Greek philosophy that extends from the very beginning of it, with Thales of Miletus (born in the 7th century BC), until the last manifestations of Greek thought not influenced by the thought of Socrates (in Greek λóγος -lôgos-) «reasoning», «argumentation», «speaks» or «discourse», It can also be understood as: "intelligence", "thought","Sense" (in ancient Greek καιρός, kairós) is a concept in Greek philosophy that represents an undetermined period of time in which something important happens. Its literal meaning is "suitable or opportune moment", in Christian theology it is associated with the "time of God" Friedrich W. Nietzsche (2000). Writings on rhetoric. Madrid: Editorial Trotta ("Classics of Culture" collection) Friedrich W. Nietzsche (2000). The Book of the Philosopher. Madrid: Editorial Taurus Friedrich W. Nietzsche (1973). The Twilight of the Idols. Madrid: Editorial AlianzaMortara Garavelli Bice (1991). Manual of Rhetoric, Madrid: Editorial CátedraFriedrich W. Nietzsche (1961). Gay science. Complete works III. The gay know. Buenos Aires: Editorial AguilarFriedrich W. Nietzsche (2006). "Of the despisers of the body", in Thus spoke Zarathustra. Madrid:Editorial AlianzaMartínez JA (2008). The language of gender and linguistic gender, Oviedo, Editions of the University of OviedoMorant Marco, R. (2007). Politically correct language and humor. AnMal ElectronicaAxiology (from the Greek άξιος 'valuable' and λόγος 'treated'), or philosophy of values, is the branch of philosophy that studies the nature of values and evaluative judgments. Direct reports that collaborate, support and assist the taking of managerial and directive decisions to achieve the objectives of the organization Mauricio Hardie Beuchot Puente (1998). Rhetoric as pragmatic and hermeneutic. Barcelona: Editorial Anthropos, publisher of man It is the transmission of a truth that does not have the function of endowing a subject with attitudes, capacities and knowledge, but rather to modify the way of being of that subject.
