Good Old Rhetoric

Prior to reading anything about rhetoric, I can honestly say that my level of understanding stems entirely from the the idea of a rhetorical statement or question. I know that when someone says something or asks a question that is not intended to be answered, that makes it rhetorical. From this, I suppose I would define rhetoric as language that is empty, lacking any substance to it. There's no doubt in my mind this is completely wrong, but I am now going to read the assigned readings and formulate my new understanding of rhetoric.

Clearly I had no idea what rhetoric was, as it actually has a lot of substance to it. Using mostly the Herrick reading as a guide, I now believe rhetoric is vastly complex and important. Rhetoric is really persuasion on the surface, but at a much deeper level. When one thinks of persuasion, they may think of a car salesman trying to get you to buy the expensive car. While that car salesman is actually employing rhetoric, rhetoric can be anything, not just language, that is used to effectively advance a goal. In the Herrick reading, the statement that "...rhetoric is the art of employing symbols effectively" (7), seems to be the one that sums up the definition of rhetoric the best.

It can actually be difficult to think of any conversation that does not employ rhetoric. Even if I state a fact to someone that the grass is green, I'm still trying to persuade them that this is true, since it may not be a fact to them. Furthermore, the fact that the color green is what it is and not called some other color probably came about through people arguing what the word should be for that color, thus employing rhetoric again. Rhetoric is so vital to everyday life, as it really is the way that the world moves forward. I'm guessing that any Congress meeting is absolutely full of rhetoric, where one person proposes a bill, leading to many responses, which lead to further responses, ultimately leading to a new and better bill being passed. (Or at least that's the idea).

As outlined in the reading, rhetoric has had a bad wrap in history, primarily because with the idea of persuasion we start to think negative thoughts. Even my initial ideas of rhetoric were that is was empty and lacking in substance. However, after reading the articles, I feel that persuasion can indeed be bad, but more often is good. In the end, rhetoric triumphs over falsehoods through using persuasion to communicate the truth. Since rhetoric uses arguments, the better argument will win, leading the persuasion towards the truth. So I feel rhetoric is really an art that probably takes a long time to master, but since it is so common, we all are rhetors to some degree.