Economic/Political Crisis

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Economic/Political Crisis

by komal » Sun Feb 07, 2010 4:19 am
An economic or political crisis in a poor country can lead to a lack of faith in the country's leaders, which is often followed by violent behavior, dissent, and even revolt among specific segments of the population. In many cases, propaganda is immediately issued from media outlets that quells such reactions by downplaying the extent of the recent crisis, thereby helping to restore belief in the efficacy of the government. However, the habitual violence exhibited by certain groups of disaffected youths in such countries generally has nothing to do with a lack of faith in their leaders, but rather is the consequence of an endemic boredom and lack of any vision of a positive future for themselves.

Which of the following statements follows most logically from the statements in the passage above?

(A) It is easier to quell periodic revolts in poor countries than it is to solve the habitual problem of youth violence.

(B) In all poor countries, propaganda alone cannot entirely diffuse dissent stemming from an economic or political crisis.

(C) Economic and political crises do not lead to any instances of youth violence in poor countries.

(D) The effect that propaganda has in putting down revolts in poor countries is primarily related to its ability to alter people's fundamental beliefs.

(E) To the extent that propaganda may help to decrease youth violence in a poor country, it is probably not the result of restoring the youths' faith in their country's leadership.

OA[spoiler] (E)[/spoiler]
Source: — Critical Reasoning |

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by vijay_venky » Sun Feb 07, 2010 6:01 am
Three options fall in place once we start answering this question. A,B and E.

C- Too strong in saying that they do not lead to youth violence because the voice of the author is moderate.
D- we are talking about the belief in leaders and the purview of fundamental beliefs is too large for this option to be considerable.

So we can easily eliminate these two.

Now looking at the selected ones.

A- The author never attempts to talk about the comparison between the ease of quelling the revolts. So not in the scope.
B- Neither are we informed of the probability of a habitual violence resulting from an economic downturn nor are we informed about the efficiency of the media propaganda. So we cannot comment on this.

E- The tone is reasonably moderate and qualified so I choose E

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by hrishi19884 » Sun Feb 07, 2010 8:16 am
vijay_venky wrote:Three options fall in place once we start answering this question. A,B and E.

C- Too strong in saying that they do not lead to youth violence because the voice of the author is moderate.
D- we are talking about the belief in leaders and the purview of fundamental beliefs is too large for this option to be considerable.

So we can easily eliminate these two.

Now looking at the selected ones.

A- The author never attempts to talk about the comparison between the ease of quelling the revolts. So not in the scope.
B- Neither are we informed of the probability of a habitual violence resulting from an economic downturn nor are we informed about the efficiency of the media propaganda. So we cannot comment on this.

E- The tone is reasonably moderate and qualified so I choose E
Nice explanation brother!

Just to add to it

1)Second line says that propaganda is immediately issued and it helps to reduce youth violence.

2)last line says that youth violence is nothing to do with the lack of faith in leaders(faith in country's leadership)

From 1) and 2) we can conclude that - there is a possibility that youth violence is not due to restoring youth's faith in country's leadership.

The above is the conclusion drawn is same as E. Hence E makes it.

E -
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by haveto » Fri Jun 11, 2010 8:00 pm
Are you guys convinced with the answer? Can you please help me understand?

E says if propaganda does reduce some youth violence then it is probably not because of the restored youth's faith in leadership.

As per passage we know only about 1 type of youths - those who lack vision and have nothing to do with faith in leadership. They commit crime that can not be reduced by media because media can help restore faith only. These guys don't care about faith. Lets call this type XX.

Now in E, if media help reduce some violence then it will primarily be the result of gain in faith because media can't really convince XX - then how can we say, as explained in E, that reduced crime is not because of restored faith in youth?

I might be missing something really subtle but please let me know....