In my community, one in which there are hundreds of thousands of opposing views, the only way to change someone's mind to counter arguments with cold hard fact, dynamic speech patterns, and a whole lot of charisma, but even when delivering an argument perfectly, I still highly doubt the mind of the unchanging modern American can be changed. People in America are stuck in their ways, we are bred to think our views our right, and when we cross lines into opposing views, are loyalties are called into question. If I was arguing the pros of a universal health care system with someone say in the conservative media, I could offer the most dynamically perfect argument in history, and still be met with nothing but fear mongering and forthright hostility. Logical reasoning appears to be a dead art when I put on these debate shows on CNN or Fox News and all I am presented with is fully biased opinions. This lack of contextual debate is bad for democracy and bad for our country as no reconciliation or plan ever seems to emerge from them.
The other night, well morning, it was about 3 a.m., I was with about 15 other people after a party was winding down. For whatever reason, a young girl there, clearly extremely Catholic in her religious upbringing and far to the right in her political beliefs, wanted to discuss religion. I couldn't help but think this absurd considering how pointless theological debate ultimately becomes when you are in a room of so many people from all parts of the world. Then the girl shocked everyone in the room. She asked a Muslim student, a friend of ours in the room, to deliberate on his views on Jesus Christ, totally singling him out. She then went on to talk of how wrong it is that people couldn't think of him as God. The other people in the room, some Christian, some Jewish, many Atheist, then all started shouting at each other all their personal beliefs and ideas. I couldn't help but think what a drag it was, so I simply stood up, spoke in a witty and dry tone, and said, "Listen, there are 15 people here all from very different backgrounds, there is absolutely no way we can achieve a unanimous opinion in this matter therefore we might as well shut up and go back to having fun." Everyone in the room seemed to agree, even the girl, who had already proved nothing but ignorance and intolerance to those around her. I didn't convince anybody of anything other than that some things we can't convince one another of and therefore they are fruitless to debate. For this reason, I feel I was successful.
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Nice! You used a rhetorical appeal to "having a good time" (relaxation, peace, and love?) to get people to drop their ideologic blockades and continue to party and communicate with each other.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your sentiments about modern public rhetoric and the impossibility of changing people's minds through the ways you list initially. It is almost as if you must cover deliberate rhetorical moves (like your objective--getting people to shut up) in the guise of doing something else--something un-rhetorical.