170 8.3 GatherinG and UsinG sUpportinG Material
[“Allegory of the effects of good government”] shows a living medieval
town, with the gates in the wall invitingly wide open to spirited peo-
ple bringing the harvest in from fruitful fields. But Lorenzetti painted
another picture, “Allegory of the effects of bad government.” It shows
Siena in chaos, closed and ravaged by the plague, destroyed by a strug-
gle for power and war.^17
A literal analogy might have compared pre-World War I Europe to twenty-
first-century Europe. But Jagland went on to complete his figurative analogy
by comparing the paintings to the present-day choice between harmony and
conflict.
The two pictures are meant to remind us that it is up to ourselves
whether or not we are to live in well-ordered circumstances.
Because it relies not on facts or statistics, but rather on imaginative insights,
the figurative analogy is not considered hard evidence. But because it is creative,
it is inherently interesting and should help grab an audience’s attention. In a
speech titled “Short-Term Demands Vs. Long-Term Responsibilities,” PepsiCo
CEO Indra Nooyi used this figurative analogy:
Like the characters in the Hindu epic, the Ramayana, capitalism has
the ability to assume different forms for different times and different
nations.^18
USING ANALOGIES EFFECTIVELY Two suggestions can help you to use lit-
eral and figurative analogies more effectively:- Be sure that the two things you compare in a literal analogy are very similar. The
more alike the two things being compared, the more likely it is that the anal-
ogy will stand up under attack. - Be sure that the essential similarity between the two objects of a figurative analogy
is readily apparent. When you use a figurative analogy, it is crucial to make
clear the similarity on which the analogy is based. If you do not, your audi-
ence will end up wondering what in the world you are talking about.
Statistics
Many of us live in awe of numbers, or statistics. Perhaps nowhere is our respect
for statistics so evident—and so exploited—as in advertising. If three out of four
doctors surveyed recommend Pain Away aspirin, it must be the best. If Sudsy
Soap is 99.9 percent pure (whatever that means), surely it will help our com-
plexions. And if nine out of ten people like Sloppy Catsup in the taste test, we
will certainly buy some for this weekend’s barbecue. How can the statistics be
wrong?
The truth about statistics falls somewhere between such unconditional faith
in numbers and the wry observation that “There are three kinds of lies: lies,
damned lies, and statistics.”