01-10-2011 3P Post #5: The Place Of Rhetoric

“Rhetoric is the art of ruling the minds of men….”

(Plato)

“Power is the most persuasive rhetoric….”

(Friedrich von Schiller)

““He steps on stage and draws the sword of rhetoric,

and – when he is through – someone is lying wounded and

thousands of others are either angry or consoled….”
(Pete Hamill)

Words.  They are powerful.

Words, linguistically speaking, are signposts or markers of concepts.  For humans, words are not necessary to communicate, but they allow a depth and a sophistication of communication that is difficult in any other way.  This is not because of the words themselves, but because of what words denote.

When i was getting my graduate philosophy degree, i studied a linguistic / philosophical pursuit called “deconstructionism.”  Basically, it is the work of philosophers to say that words have either no meaning or – more accurately – only the meaning that the person reading or listening assigns to them based on his/her linguistic contextualization and not the meaning the author intended to be conveyed.  At least, that is one of my perspectives on what it means (no ideological pun intended).  i was fascinated by deconstructionism (and still am), but i found it mostly pointless.  However, i do think that what i consider to be the primal impulse of it is valid: to point out that communication is based more on the exchange of concepts than on the description of them.

Words function in many ways for human beings – and other types of beings, too.  For example, vows are made, generally, with words and sealed in blood.  The blood is obviously important, but the words define what the blood consequences.  Where would we be without the words of those who Love us, hate us, support us, oppose us, encourage us, belittle us, or provide other contexts for us.

When i was a kid, people used to say, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never harm me.”  Well, those people are just flat-out wrong.  i know what they meant, though.  In high school, i was the main basketball player on my team.  i LOVED it when opposing players, fans, or coaches would run their mouth about me to the newspapers or their players or whoever.  It made me play better, because it motivated me.  It wasn’t my primary motivation, but it supported my primary motivation of winning.  Words cause us to react, and – often – they do harm and harm greatly.

When i leave this earth, for many of my Loved ones my voice and what i have said to them over the years will be the only thing they can recall about me besides isolated events.  When the “tapes” play in my beLoveds’ heads, i want them to recall that i said constantly to them, “i Love You.”  i hope those tapes yield hours and hours of me telling them in all kinds of circumstances and environments and situations that i Love them…of encouragement to fight the temptation to merely exist and press forward in war to Truly Live…of mercy and grace and compassion and hospitality…of wise counsel and godly advice and shrewd strategy…of kindness and gentleness and affection….

Words are most powerful when accompanied by other phenomena.  This is because words appeal to the mind, which is part of our physical being but also impacted greatly by our emotional and spiritual components as opposed to the “heart,” which is the biblical term used to refer to the nexus of Your soul, spirit, and body.  So, when words are combined with passion (the soul) or with action (the body) or with eternal perspective (the spirit), they become more than just words.  They become a glimpse into Your heart.

People today have been talking about the shooting over the weekend of an Arizona congresswoman, judge, congressional staffer, and others.  They have been wondering about the place of rhetoric in our society.  There is talk of “toning down” the rhetoric, of being more measured in our speech, of considering that our words have impact beyond just breath formed like smoke rings into sound waves that penetrate ears of all types.

When i was a kid, i remember being told often by many adults around me that cussing was a sign of stupidity.  It was a forgone conclusion that the only people who cussed were those who were so undereducated and, therefore, incapable of forming a thoughtful, rational, & clever response to any given situation because of a deficit of analytical & rhetorical skills and also a lacking & poor vocabulary.  Well, rhetoric ought to serve a purpose, and i later discovered that cussing was funny, for example.  i was a great trash-talker when i played basketball and frequently embarrassed my opponents equally with my words and my skills.  Over the years, i have learned that any words – whether they are rhetoric, poetry, confession, teaching, testimony, admonishment, pronouncement (Blessing or cursing), instruction, information, treaty, speech, etc. – should serve the people hearing them.  The people listening should endure little to walk away having gained much.  That is what is not happening in our society.  The words spoken in our society cause us to endure much to pick over barely-carcassed bones for little nutrition – and, indeed, often for poisoning.

Contrast that with Y’shua – the Word of God.  He is the epitome of what words should be: simultaneously just & merciful while all along humbly injecting the Love of God into the world.  A mystery, indeed.

Words, in the end equation, reflect the character of the speaker.  And while non-verbal signals are more cumulatively than the spoken signals, words are the most overt and obvious signals.  They can also be the most unTrue – often the Truth of words is hard to discern while other types of signals such as body language, electrical impulses, glandular secretions, and the like are more telling harbingers of the integrity of the linguistic.  But whether or not someone is lying still reveals their character.  This is why it is important, for example, that people put their trust in Y’shua instead of Scripture, because Scripture can be twisted, perverted, and distorted by the enemy himself whilst Y’shua is always “Faithful & True.”

We need to listen to what people say.  When the leader of Iran says he wants to remove Israel from the map or Hitler makes radical statements, they should be heeded.  But so should the sweet whispers of snakes in the Jungle Book story or the Garden of Eden.  Rhetoric betrays thoughts, and thoughts betray intentions.  When You listen to politicians, be careful to evaluate anything but fruit, for all else is often preceded by rhetoric, occasioned by excuses, and results in harm.  Words are the decoration on the corpses that lay silently in lost promise, on the prison bars holding those who dissent, and the uniforms of those who succumb to the overpowering tyrants who talk in platitudes without substance....