Rhetoric, some very general thoughts…

italianbrother · #1 02-Mar-2004, 16:57

A while ago, just before the gloomy days of war with Iraq were going to begin, I remember reading an article, one of the many published in those days, overflowing with cheap rhetoric with the intention to persuade the population that what was going to happen was morally right. Almost a year now, and still the same rhetoric is uttered by those same harlots, flatterers and seducers. For Plato rhetoric was an unnecessary tool, whereas for Aristotle was an available means of persuasion, and persuasion is one of the main causes for its use today, as it was in the ancient days, but in those days the power of the omens were also greatly valued and if the chickens did not eat then war would never start, mind you, today the only thing a chicken brings is a bit of flu, but rhetoric continues to be popular as ever. Why? Why do we need such a style?? What is in rhetoric that we are so fond of? And why is that if some one will tell us something with a straightforwardly approach we will just find it boring? But the more flowery a prose we will come across, and the more enthusiastic about we will become? Not only we need to be articulate and proficient in the use of the language, but to be booming today, we need to have wit and a particular mastery in moulding and chiselling the language as a Hellenistic sculptor shaped its Venus so that it would stand upright and beautiful.