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

What is your reality

Reality is defined as the state of things as they are or appear to be, rather than as one might wish them to be.(1) Do we create our own reality or do the people and things around us create our reality. Barry Brummett explores the idea that we create our realities in his ontological view of rhetoric. Brummett states “discourse creates realities rather than truths about realties”. (2)
In the idea that discourse or conversation is what creates our reality brings many different questions to mind.

There are many people who would say that we can’t change who we are. However Brummetts theory states otherwise. Basically the stories and things we tell others about us define who we are, according to Brummetts theory. However, what if someone makes up their version of who you are? In this case the people around you would be creating a reality for you. You then lose the control to mold your image into what you want people to see you as.

I believe that there are many different components that go into “reality”. There is the physical reality, which is physical objects such as rocks, trees, water, and other physical things on earth. There are those who are a part of your reality, such as mothers, brothers, sisters, friends, coworkers, and even the people around you that you never talk to and possible never will. You are the other component. These are just some of the basics that go in to creating your reality.

I’m going to give you a rough example of how I see all of these components working together. Let’s say someone wants to be known as fashionable individual. They want to create a reality for themselves as a impressionable beautiful person. Here is the catch in this case, what they consider to be beautiful or fashionable, may not be what the people around them think is beautiful or fashionable. Through discourse you might be able to convince others around you that you view is the correct reality. However rather we realize or not the people around us help create our reality. We can create all kinds of stories for ourselves to make people see us they way we want, but there will always be people who create stories about us as well.

Although Brummetts theory is a good one I fell that it has too many open variables. It is a great basis with which we can build on to try and understand our realties. I leave with this thought to ponder. How would use the people and things around to help mold and create your reality?

Source for further reading.

1. Collins Essential English Dictionary 2nd Edition 2006 © HarperCollins Publishers 2004, 2006

2.Three Meanings of Epistemic Rhetoric: Barry Brummett, SCA Convention, November, 1979