Tag: rhetoric

Obama reconnects speaking with information

I’m hoping that Obama is (in addition to cleaning up our international reputation and getting us humane, affordable healthcare) going to change the way we speak and talk and make clarity and substance the standard.

Thank you to Doug Plummer for pointing me (via Twitter) to James Fallows’ piece for the Atlantic on Barack Obama’s speeches.

Fallows points out that Obama’s speeches diverge dramatically from what we think of as contemporary rhetoric because, instead of revitalizing, reinforcing, and building on familiar concepts and beliefs, they present new concepts. They are political rhetoric outside of the box.

I’m hoping that Obama is (in addition to cleaning up our international reputation and getting us humane, affordable healthcare) going to change the way we speak and talk and make clarity and substance (rather than ranting and raving) the standard. While I’m waiting, I’m going to whip out my own editorial flyswatter and start whomping buzzwords.

Excuse me, I think I hear a “Social Media” fly in here somewhere.

Ranting — a fine way to end up flat on your face

There are many rhetorical devices writers and speakers can use to persuade readers and listeners to their side of an argument. Ranting does not number among them.

ranting-color-istockThe rant is an obscure English dance step.

You’ll find discussions of it on arcane folk dance sites, one of which noted that at a recent social dance, when the caller announced a dance that included the rant step, people on the dance floor fled to the sidelines.

In English dance, ranting is difficult, exhausting — and sometimes dangerous: there’s a foot-crossing part where you can easily trip and fall flat on your face.

Isn’t it odd how much this all sounds like a description of the ranting that turns up on TV, radio, emails, and blogs?

I doubt ranting has ever changed the mind of a single member of the opposition (unless through intimidation). And if you agree with the ranter’s underlying premise, the rant seems even worse because the inarticulate, one-sided spewing undercuts the credibility of more intelligent presentations of the issue.

There are many rhetorical devices writers and speakers can use to persuade readers and listeners to their side of an argument. Ranting does not number among them.

(I rather like dicaeologia, though.)

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