Don’t trust 'em (1 / 2)

Don’t trust 'em   (1 / 2)

In Thank You For Arguing, Jay Heinrichs gives a series of tricks that can make people more persuasive. These tricks work by deceiving the audience in favor of the speaker. In other words, the author teaches the art of manipulation. When Heinrichs writes about selflessness, honesty, and rationality, he does not advocate them as important traits that a leader should have, but rather as important traits for a leader to seem to have. For the author, it’s all about the illusion.

As I read further into the book, its purpose seems to be crafting western 21st Century politicians that fully adapt themselves to their audiences, neglecting their own beliefs. These politicians can be excellent candidates, in office however, dangerously unpredictable.

Just look at some of the tittles and subtitles and you’ll understand what I mean:

Chapter 4: “Soften Them Up”

Chapter 5: “Get Them to Like You”

Chapter 6: “Make Them Listen”, Subtitle: “Converting character into a tool of persuasion”.

Chapter 8: “Win Their Trust”, (my favorite) Subtitle: “Using selflessness for personal gain”.

Chapter seven is about practical wisdom, the second major element of ethos. When a speaker portrays practical wisdom, the audience will be more likely to agree with whatever he says. So, does Heinrich teach us how to be streetwise? No. What he does is teach readers to seem streetwise, namely, by bragging on experience, bending the rules, and appearing to take the middle course in polemical issues. Interestingly, he starts the chapter by quoting Aristotle saying, “they should rule who are able to rule best”. Perhaps he should make a personal adaptation to the quote, making it something like: “they should rule who can fake the ability to rule”.

The problem with teaching manipulation is that it can empower dangerous manipulators.

This guy, for example.

Most shocking of all is the number of YouTube likes on this video (10560) and the top comments: “I can't LIKE this enough! I listen to this to keep me pumped up! I wish some of the weak United States politicians spoke like this. With such passion! HE is amazing!”, “Hitler did nothing wrong” and “he’s better than obama”.

This speech is so powerful that it can clearly make modern people leave behind what is logical and morally good, in favor of, arguably, the most repudiated person of all time.

Nowadays, you don’t have to be Alexander the Great to learn rhetoric from Aristotle. Knowledge has become so accessible that millions of people can make use of rhetorical guidebooks (such as the book which I now hold in my hands). Nevertheless, this knowledge has not been extended to the majority, making much of the audience for, say, politics, susceptible to be manipulated by a large number of people.

In politics, the form has overridden the content. The American democratic system favors people with dubious intentions who excel in the usage of rhetoric.

Lets remember what really matters.