As I was looking through the different meanings the internet had for the term rhetoric there was one in particular that caught my eye. Dictionary.com states that rhetoric is the "skill in using language effective and persuasively." I cant help but wonder is this really something the human population does on a daily basis?
Communication has been the heart of all problems and celebrations in the world throughout history. Take for example the classic Shakespearean tale of Romeo and Juliet. These two people driven heavily by their emotions were willing to do whatever it took to be together because their love was so strong. Unfortunately due to miss communication their goal to fake their own death's and runaway together turned out to be a horrible tragedy of young love ended too soon.
There is of course the other side of the coin where communication when executed correctly can be effective and persuasive. The classic example of that would be Martin Luther King Jr's "I Have A Dream" speech. I think this is one of the fine examples of the right amount of ethos, pathos, and logos that can and did persuade people and their thought processes.
I personally feel that half of the battle when it comes to rhetoric is not delivering the right amount of ethos, pathos, and logos to your recipient, it is the recipient being willing to take it all in! I find that many people would rather talk, talk, talk then listen and fully take in all the dimensions of what is being said to them. I think if people were to slow down, intake what is fully being delivered to them and put themselves in the speakers shoes they would be able to take in the full message and not what they just want to hear.
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Interesting point about the receptiveness of the target of rhetoric. You can use the most persuasive arguments known to man but some people are impervious to good ideas.
ReplyDeleteAnd curse Miss Communication and her hatred for young love! :)
Is Miss Communication a Beyonce song?
ReplyDeleteAll kidding aside, I do think King's famous speech is a fantastic speech to analyze.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, when I did a Google search for "I have a dream" the first result was for a transcript of the speech on the American Rhetoric website.
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm
At one point in the film, as King delivers the speech in a mixed tone of anger and hope, he states, "in a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check." As he says the word capital the film editors chose to switch to a camera feed of the large, bleach white, lonely looking capital building; clearly this was no mistake.
Amen sister! Listening is sadly a lost art. If only more people would shut their face and open their ears....sigh.
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