Once upon a rhetorical situation, there was this actor who took action by claiming that some warrant needed to be qualified by data. Rhetoric. Yeah. I have read many things about rhetoric: some current, some outdated, some revamped over and over, some lingering like the smell of something in the trash can, and some things that stick with you like too many beers or fattening snacks.
“Rhetoric is the art of ruling the minds of men.” Plato.
“On the third Tuesday of every September, floodgates are opened in a tall building on the East River in New York and a Niagara of rhetoric gushes forth for three months.” Anthony Parsons.
Rhetoric has been described as persuasion, fluff, mind control, excrement, and sugarcoated lies. Truthfully, rhetoric is a tool like anything else. It is a means to reach an agreement when the facts are just not enough to show your side of things. When someone knows how to put words, thoughts, and feelings together in such a way that people are moved to believe them, to accept them, and to follow them, those people are often labeled as liars, con artists, lawyers, or the worst of all great leaders. We are inundated with rhetoric all the time with only one goal, to convince us how awesome, beautiful, sexy, smart, healthy, or safe we would be when we buy the next new special THING; do we outcry against those advertising giants who have found the way to make us into rats in a cage with a feeder bar pushing away for another pellet? If the rhetoric of Nike, Cheez-its, or Nissan is acceptable, then why do we say someone who seeks to lead us in office and try and improve our status is using “rhetoric” and is thus evil? No, that last comment is not to single out any leader but to emphasize ALL of them. We are creatures of language and passions; we should not defame those who use it to inspire those passions and move us.
Enough soapbox chatter. I’m done.
