Rhetoric can change the world

Can the stories we tell our children today change the outcome of the future. Through what I have read, seen and experienced, rhetoric can be the strongest weapon in an arsenal. Rhetoric can be used to build up or tear down, and or make some one believe what you want them to believe. Rhetoric is defined many different ways because it has so many applications. For this article we will define rhetoric as using language effectively to please or persuade and study of the technique and rules for using language effectively (especially in public speaking). (3) I am going to present two different ways that rhetoric was used to create a significant amount of change.

The first example I would like to present is a positive example. President Roosevelt used rhetoric very effectively during the Great Depression. Roosevelt used his fire side chats to ensure a nation and bring hope to a distraught and fear nation back to its feet.(4) Through these chats he was able to effectively use rhetoric to pursued people that things were getting better. In doing so people started to believe and take action rather than give up and fall to despair. One of my favorite quotes from Roosevelt was “do not tell me it can't be done". In his chats he used techniques and powerful words that the nation listened to and strongly believed in. Although Roosevelt also put so many different plans in to place that lead the nation out of the depression; I feel that the fire side chats played one of the most important roles in providing hope.




This second example of how rhetoric can cause dramatic change, it not only changed a nation, it change the world. Adolf Hitler used rhetoric in a very negative way and I despise what was done because of it. However, it is a perfect example. He used several different forms of rhetoric. He used the written form by creating stories about the Jews that were not true. However because this information was being taught in schools and written in papers the German nation started believing in it. His speeches captivated the German nation and lead them to believe in Hitler’s idea of a perfect race and that the Germans were the perfect race. Hitler used rhetoric to spread verbal genocide, which eventually turned into physical genocide. He convinced the people of Germany to invade all of Europe, and this is how one person using rhetoric can change a world. World War II was one of the deadliest wars.




The atrocities that were placed upon the Jews are still engrained and honestly still bring tears to my eyes.

Rhetoric is so powerful and most of us don't even think about how one speech can change a nation. Martian Luther King said in one of his most infamous speeches “I have a dream, that one day all men will be treat equal". That one speech helped lead the civil rights movement.(5) Rhetoric is used all the time and is more powerful than any physical weapon and large than any army. Rhetoric has changed and will continue to change and shape our world.



1.) http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-rhetoric/
2.) http://www.answers.com/topic/rhetoric
3.) wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
4.) http://www.mhric.org/fdr/fdr.html
5.)http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm