Rhetoric

I was conversing with a close friend of mine about articulation and writing (he’s a wonderful writer, his blog can be found here) when I mentioned rhetoric, which is about eloquent speaking and writing. He then said, “I hate rhetoric.” because he says that today all it is is manipulation usually with malicious intent. In this post, I’ll talk about what I think about rhetoric, and the things it entails.

Rhetoric is the art of effective or persuasive writing, the concept of “rhetoric,” was created by the Greeks and Romans, some prominent figures being Aristotle and Cicero. Modern notable figures who used and excelled in rhetoric well are Abraham Lincoln and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Forgetting the context, rhetoric, many people argue, is a euphemistic way of saying ‘manipulation.’ To an extent, I believe that’s true, but if we throw away our negative connotation about the word ‘manipulation,’ then you’ll see simply asking a question is a form of manipulation; you are willing someone to do something for you. Sometimes your question will capitalize on a person’s inability to say, “no,” that’s manipulation. We manipulate people all the time, whether we correctly use rhetoric to do so or not, we still manipulate people constantly. Rhetoric is just a more eloquent and effective way of doing so. Rhetoric also is a prominent component in argument, if you argue, and intend to get somewhere or objectively disprove your opponent, you will, more likely than not, consciously or unconsciously use rhetoric. The thing is, in today's world, people aren't using rhetoric anymore because they aren't arguing anymore. Today people do something else while calling it arguing, fighting. Argument is constructive, people should argue to grow, learn something, or find the best answer for a problem that deals with all parties involved. However, today, people believe that their opinion is right, and their opponents, no, their enemy's opinion is wrong, they are adamant, and myopic, closing their minds tighter than a vault. This ends in the audience covering their ears, and intelligent people laughing hysterically because seeing people yell while calling it, "debate," is funny for some reason—people find other people's pain funny as long as they don't witness the consequence to that pain. People aren't trying to reach a consensus anymore, they're trying to defeat their opponent, they're trying to win, this is an eristic argument, it's about winning points, no one cares how many points you have, unless everyone has points everyone loses, the best win, is the win-win. I surmise the reason for this, and talking to other people who study rhetoric, is because no one studies rhetoric anymore. No one learns how to make themselves credible and trustworthy, no one learns how to use logic and reasoning, no one learns how to make themselves calm and moving. People aren't studying the minutiae that makes society strong. We say history isn't important, we think English is boring, that we already know how to read and write, that math can be done on a calculator, and that science is talking about how plants work—honestly, who cares how a plant works? The rose is beautiful, can I stop there? What in the world is a "chloroplast?" I say this because I've said all these things, I see my peers say it, and agree when I used to say it. I've come to learn how I was incorrect in those statements, but that is luck, people are fed the same things, and they have the same thoughts, we should be studying the small things like rhetoric, learning how to talk, hearing "uh," "um," and "like" every three words is getting a little agitating. Study. At the end of the day, this post will be seen by only so many people, for this reason, I recommend you study rhetoric, it will give you an advantage above people that don't study, as the saying goes, "knowledge is power." Other than that my next post is number one hundred, I'll see if I can do something special, thanks for reading a more opinionated post through, have a fantastic week, I'll see you the next, peace.

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#Pragmatic #thoughts