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I generally approach this with students using a cople of illustrative comparisons.

One is to discuss what the artist intended to convey with this painting:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanderer_above_the_Sea_of_Fog

The other is to use this quote from John Lewis Gaddis' book "On Grand Strategy:"

"Steven Spielberg’s 2012 film Lincoln is dramatization at its best. It shows the president, played by Daniel Day-Lewis, trying to make good on the claim, in the Declaration of Independence, that all men are created equal: what more praiseworthy cause could a hedgehog possibly pursue? But to abolish slavery, Lincoln must move the Thirteenth Amendment through a fractious House of Representatives, and here his maneuvers are as foxy as they come. He resorts to deals, bribes, flattery, arm-twisting, and outright lies—so much so that the movie reeks, visually if not literally, of smoke-filled rooms.

When Thaddeus Stevens (Tommy Lee Jones) asks the president how he can reconcile so noble an aim with such malodorous methods, Lincoln recalls what his youthful years as a surveyor taught him:

'[A] compass . . . [will] point you true north from where you’re standing, but it’s got no advice about the swamps and deserts and chasms that you’ll encounter along the way. If in pursuit of your destination, you plunge ahead, heedless of obstacles, and achieve nothing more than to sink in a swamp . . . , [then] what’s the use of knowing true north?'"

Too many discussion look to stay above the mists and not explore the terrain beneath, or remain focused on "True North" without regard to the obstacles that must be confronted.

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Good comments. I don't recall the Lincoln quote. It is surely true and it does explain a lot of the distastefulness of the sausage factory. The "bloviating" that I refer to is a dangerous way to proceed. It clearly seems oblivious to ground conditions. "Ground control to major Tom..."

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It's a quote from the Spielberg movie; whether or not Abe said it is anyone's guess.

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