The Rhetoric
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
The Rhetoric
Oh, I do enjoy persuasion lessons, and you heard it here first. Despite all the confusion in regards to the nature of the rhetoric, there is still something immensely enjoyable about how it grounds itself in both the arts and the sciences at the same time. It deals with the art of effective speaking and writing, but at the same time contains elements of behavioral sciences. With that said, however, persuasion is not a walk in the park at all. It is probably a walk through the streets of Athens where Aristotle lived more than two thousand years ago, where everybody spoke in tongues alien to you. Sure enough, Mr. Sex speaks perfect English in class most of the time, but all the stuff about Aristotle and his rhetoric can be pretty hard to comprehend at times. Maybe it's not the rhetoric, but rather the way that Mr. Sex presents his ideas and how scattered they feel at times. A point here and a point there, a note here and a note there. He pretty much blurts out information in regards to the lesson whenever it pops up in his head, which might explain why it may seem so random and dispersed sometimes. That is not to say, however, that this man blurts nonsense. There is no doubt that he is smart, in fact very smart. I have a problem with where he is going most of the time, however, and that is taking some getting use to.
Oh, I do enjoy persuasion lessons, and you heard it here first. Despite all the confusion in regards to the nature of the rhetoric, there is still something immensely enjoyable about how it grounds itself in both the arts and the sciences at the same time. It deals with the art of effective speaking and writing, but at the same time contains elements of behavioral sciences. With that said, however, persuasion is not a walk in the park at all. It is probably a walk through the streets of Athens where Aristotle lived more than two thousand years ago, where everybody spoke in tongues alien to you. Sure enough, Mr. Sex speaks perfect English in class most of the time, but all the stuff about Aristotle and his rhetoric can be pretty hard to comprehend at times. Maybe it's not the rhetoric, but rather the way that Mr. Sex presents his ideas and how scattered they feel at times. A point here and a point there, a note here and a note there. He pretty much blurts out information in regards to the lesson whenever it pops up in his head, which might explain why it may seem so random and dispersed sometimes. That is not to say, however, that this man blurts nonsense. There is no doubt that he is smart, in fact very smart. I have a problem with where he is going most of the time, however, and that is taking some getting use to.
Amidst all the confusion, I still love persuasion lessons. His theatrics and his jokes aside, I do enjoy how the module takes apart very basic human behavior and analyzes it in a way that is refreshing to me. I mean, the topic is somehow related to that of philosophy in a way, and I have never been a fan of that topic ever since my encounter with Sophie, the main character from the book Sophie's World. You can say what you like about the book, you can rave all you want about how it is a literary masterpiece and whatnot. I happen to disagree with that, and I am definitely one of the few people who dislikes the book with a raging adult passion. It was about a mysterious man slipping philosophical questions to a teenage girl by mail over a period of time, and this girl became intrigued by the philosophies and the identity of this man. So she gradually found her way to his home, and that was when I really stopped reading the book altogether about two hundred pages in. It all felt like a very subtle hint at pedophilia somehow, and none of the so-called "philosophies" made much sense to me. That is all besides the fact that the book is horribly translated, if not badly written in the first place.
Anyway, philosophy has never fascinated me very much ever since Sophie's World came along. Still, persuasion lessons have been fun because it takes the most basic human relationships and interactions apart and then puts it back together in a coherent and comprehensible manner. It speaks of how people uses the tools of persuasion to sway you in their desired directions. It can be a complicated issue in regards to how a television advertisement feeds you with information that they'd like you to hear, or a simply everyday issue like a meeting with a door-to-door salesman. Everything can be explained by the rhetoric, and this is something written even before the birth of Christ, if you prefer to see the human timeline that way. It's pretty breathtaking just how much a person is able to accomplish just by going around in a marketplace and just observing what people are doing and what they are saying. Even more amazing is just how practical these observations are in today's context, and we start to realize just how little we have evolved as a species in this world. We have only lived on this planet for so long anyway, and evolution certainly takes a much longer time than that. One thing for sure, and it is that the rhetoric is not going out of style anytime soon.
We learned about reciprocation just the other day, and that alone reminded me of a dozen other occasions when I became a victim of this tool of persuasion to so many students on the streets asking for donations, members of the local churches asking me to go to their sermons and stuff like that. You know how it is with these people, I used to call them the vultures of the sidewalk. They are always lurking about in the hidden corners of the road, and they'd be springing out from nowhere just to catch you by surprise, as if that surprise is going to temporarily cause your brain to malfunction just long enough for you to do something in favor of their intentions. I remember my friends and I were ambushed by two young ladies at a theater once, and they were trying to promote some kind of charity drive or something, I can no longer remember. The first thing that they gave us was a little postcard, which looked really neat because of the simplistic designs it employed which I adore. That was when reciprocation came into play, when they started telling us their terms, like some kind of hostage negotiation. We gave in, in the end, not because we really felt bad about the children they represented, but because of the fact that they gave us those postcards and we felt obliged to do something in return.
That is the power of persuasion, and so many people have exploited those tools to get what they want. Even those charity foundations know of these sly and underhanded ways of dealing with people just to get them to comply. It is like some kind of a brainwashing factory, where people are passed through this giant machine to be convinced and persuaded. Anyway, the same can be said about members of a church coming up to you and then offering you some kind of a gift before telling you to attend their church. I encountered one of these people once at a subway station, and the first thing that he did was to offer me some kind of a pin or a badge that had biblical quote on it. It was handmade, and that was probably why they were willing to give it away so freely in the first place anyway - or maybe they just wanted to 'save' me. Anyway, they start to talk to me about the religion, their church, what they represented and everything, all of those just to have my promise to attend their sermon and a phone number. I was reluctant to promise them anything, and that was when I was told that I'd be going to Hell if I do not attend their church.
I had to give them my e-mail address in the end, although I was still condemned to Hell according to them. It wasn't so much about wanting to get rid of them or anything, but because of how I felt like I was obliged to listen to what they had to say. I felt that it was the least I could give them if not my phone number in exchange of the badge that they gave me. Mr. Sex presented a similar situation in class just the other day in regards to monks trying to give you something just to ask you for your kind donations afterwards. He proposed that we should give them something before they have the chance to give us something, and that is how you turn the table around and make him feel obliged to you instead. I thought it'd be neat to carry a bible around next time, just so that I can give to one of these charity-seeking monks on the streets before they can stuff me with one of their lucky charms, or whatever. Or perhaps a comb, that'd be interesting to see. Whatever it may be, I'd like to do the same to the next person who intends to use reciprocation as a tool of persuasion on me. Find a way to make them feel obliged to me, how manipulative is that? And, don't you just love manipulation of ordinary human beings.
Let's also admit one thing while we are at it: most of us are probably lost and confused about what we have been copying in our notes for the past two weeks. It has been able Mr. Sex talking and us writing blindly when he decides to shift the piece of paper down to reveal more words on the transparency. It has been that way most of the time, but you cannot deny that this is definitely one of the most useful and practical modules we have ever taken. Forget about research methods and all those stuff about communication theories, how much of those come into play in real life? Just turn on the television, tune in to a radio station, visit an internet website, read a book. Persuasion is everywhere, and it is this intangible force that holds sway to all mankind and making us slaves. It is not a bad thing, though, it certainly isn't. It makes the most of us slaves because we were not conscious of its presence in our lives, and it has remained in the background for the most part and have been plotting its way through our lives with its devilry. To be made aware, to know the mechanisms of these falsehood is really what interests me about this module at large. Of course, writing random port folio entries about the best and worst purchases are fun as well, but just think about the possibilities of this module. Just think about it.
I don't suppose I can tell you just how much I enjoy this module, since a great part about it has got to do with the kind of grades I get. Let's also admit, since we are in this whole confession thing, that your grades play a big part in the amount of enjoyment you have in a subject. I don't suppose one can fully enjoy and relish in the nature of a school subject if he is failing in every single quiz and test. The same can be said about my Junior College life, and I suppose a large part was because nothing worked for me, and the grades eventually reflected my general disinterest in the things that I studied. This time, however, I have no idea how the papers are going to turn out. Mr. Sex is great fun to have as a lecturer because he speaks more like a stand-up comedian more like a professor at school. With that said, though, he is still as unpredictable as the weather, and you just don't know what tricks he has up his sleeves most of the time. He might just set a paper to kill us all with all the rhetoric, or he may set an easy mid-terms just to make us feel "obliged", as in reciprocation. Whatever it is, I am sure you and I can agree that this module has been more than just a lesson you attend in class for the sake of your grades, but a mini-seminar on life that is going to follow you around for a very, very long time.
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