How to deal with controversy, John Quincy and Tweets

While looking for a picture of John Quincy Adams just prior to publishing this post, I found out that John Quincy had a diary with lots of entries written in less than 140 characters long, in effect Tweets. There’s a Twitter account dedicated to his diary @JQAdams_MHS.

I stumbled upon this quote by John Quincy Adams:

“the duties of the citizen must retain their precedence over those of the individual; and point to the public service of the country”

You’re probably wondering what this has to do with controversy and it doesn’t. He wrote this as part of a farewell to his students at Harvard. He had just been appointed to represent the US in Russia by President Monroe. He’s best known as the 6th president of the United States, the son of John Adams and Abigail Adams as well as one of the greatest diplomats in US History. John dedicated most of his life to public service and made a lot of sacrifices in order to look out for our country’s interests.

His lectures from Harvard are published in a two volume set called “Lectures on rhetoric and oratory” . In his lecture on how to deal with controversy I’m assuming that he’s referring to a public dispute. Today, this could happen virally on social media, an accusation in the traditional media, or maybe a very public disagreement at work.

Here’s my take on the three mistakes that need to be avoided when faced with controversy:

Answering too much. In order not to answer too much, you first need to figure out what’s relevant and what’s fluff. Sometimes the opponent will add irrelevant information to hide that he really has a weak position against you. Answering every point made might result in saying too much.
Answering too little. When you’re being questioned and are rude or completely avoid the issue addressed, this is answering too little. First you need to become objective as possible in order to get the facts straight. If the accusation has any strength, it’s important to have a good answer when approached.
Replacing or misstating what you’ve been accused of. You might come up with different objections against yourself and then answering them. In effect replying not to the points made by your opponent, but to those made up by you. John Quincy thought this would have the counter-effect, helping the opponent gain supporters.