I’ve recently contributed a couple of Ego & Argument-related pieces to a new online news and opinion site, The Mark. One is about rhetoric, and the other is about heckling.
Posted by admin at 3:29 pm on May 14th, 2009.
Categories: E&A Essays. Tags: heckling, rhetoric, themark.
Regarding the suspicion surrounding Obama’s rhetoric: There was even some talk among right-wingy sorts that, far from just being very persuasive and engaging, he was in fact using hypnosis in his speeches — http://www.aapsonline.org/newsoftheday/0089 (Note that the ‘Association of American Physicians and Surgeons’ is a very conservative group with an inordinately official-sounding name).
The way you describe Barnum reminds me quite a bit of viral marketing today: clever advertisers freely taking advantage of our desire to feel savvy and insightful when we see through just-sub-obvious fakery.
Also: “When a good heckle hits its mark, it’s like the heckler has thrown a match into a tinder pile of inarticulate dissent, which ignites into laughter.” Wonderful!
Posted by David R. on May 17th, 2009.