Rhetoric

With the election season heating up, a thought or two on rhetoric.

We live in an era of aggressive, highly sophisticated rhetoric, and it is destroying our ability to be honest with ourselves.  At one time rhetoric was about combining eloquent, commanding language with facts and reason to produce a persuasive argument that attempted to convince others of the rightness of a cause.  Not anymore.  Lies, distortions, and political correctness have become legitimate tools of the rhetorician, and our public discourse suffers as a result.  Take any issue, add rhetoric, and the public dialectic becomes about winning by deception or deflection or almost any other means, rather than about discussing and resolving differences.  Political correctness plays a singularly important role in modern rhetoric because it is used to control and limit the conversation on important, politically charged issues rather than open them up to debate.

Facts are not things to play with; they matter.  Facts -- as opposed to truth, a much slipperier thing --  ground us in reality, and are the source of common understanding.  Presenting facts forthrightly and correctly is important to any public debate; distorting them is an assault on the intellect and common cause.  Facing facts as they are, rather than as we would have them be, is an exercise in being honest with ourselves. We give liars too much latitude and modern rhetoric too much respect.  We are too hesitant to call liars liars.

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