Ghostwriting With Reasoning

Recently an anonymous blogger sent me in part this private message to the account I have with MyBlogLog:

"... being high literary figure could you tell me that Ghost writing is to cover up some weak positions which may not explain on rationale basis; hence; take the shelter of Ghosts to escape from critical thinking." That's an interesting question, if I am understanding the meaning correctly to be: do people use ghostwriters because they can't think critically themselves?

A ghostwriter responsible for content wouldn't be very valuable if he or she could not write rationally and provide support for positions the author wants to take. This presupposes the material is nonfiction, of course. It doesn't matter for fiction, and I wouldn't attempt to ghostwrite fiction anyway.

It depends (as does most everything) -- it depends on how theoretical, ethereal or philosophical the subject of the writing is. The more concrete, the easier it is to find facts to prove or support a position. As an ethical ghostwriter, though, I draw a line at being responsible for promoting what I personally deplore, like weapons, human trafficking or any sort of violence. I just would not help someone with my efforts to make a case for topics I am against. I would, maybe, edit such works on the basis of upholding the First Amendment. Maybe.

The closest I've come to an ethical dilemma like this was when hired to edit website content that purported to tell men "how to get dates with beautiful women". I gritted my teeth at every innuendo that only beautiful women were worthy of attention. Lauding superficialities just isn't in my character, and I would have never created the piece. I made it more readable, for a hefty price, and I was glad the owner didn't ask me to ghostwrite any more of it.

As far as me "being a high literary figure", I looked behind me to see who she was referring to and then in the mirror to check if I had grown a few inches. Sigh! No such luck. With age we shrink, in many ways.