Evidence of Selective Imitation Based on Persuasion Outcome

By deploying examples,
By citing authority,
By building analogies,

By listing natural signs,
The would-be persuader yields
An epistemic frottage

Of what counts as good knowledge
In that persuader’s culture—
You won’t hear many numbers

Out of tribal war councils
Or auguries from NASA—
And what counts as good knowledge

In turn outlines convictions
About what leads to good outcomes—
Trust holy writ, double-blind

Trials, symbols in the stars,
Eyewitness testimony,
Replicated studies, Mao.

The old man smiled at a thought.
Whether any of these work
In a way superior

To any other depends
On what defines good outcomes
To those who lived those outcomes.