The Power Of Pathos

Behold the power of Pathos with this commercial from a few years ago. It's pretty short just take a few notes about the different emotions you feel when watching it for discussion Friday.
~Sam and Tahanee

http://youtube.com/watch?v=bX5k_BV8y-0

Pathos and Art

Who said rhetoric is all about speech? Art is a powerful visual display of rhetoric. The UIC college of architecture and art is having an exhibition from now through June (!?) titled "Patho-geographies (or, other people's baggage)" - it's a series of lectures, gallery shows, screenings, etc. If you don't know where to go for your community happening, this is always a choice:
http://wall.aa.uic.edu:62730/pub/new/colNewsEvents.asp?pageParameters=colNewsEvents&storyID=922&focus=new
It's only a minute walk away from campus.

Helping People Persuade Themselves

In an interview titled, “ On the European conquest of most of the world” Noam Chomsky, a world-renowned political thinker and activist, shines some light on his great demand as a public speaker and his attributions to this persuasion: “ As you know from having heard me speak, I’m not a particularly charismatic speaker, and if I had the capacity to do so I wouldn’t use it. I’m really not interested in persuading people. I don’t want to and I try to make this point obvious. What I’d like to do is help people persuade themselves. I tell them what I think, and obviously I hope they’ll persuade themselves that that’s true. But I’d rather have them persuade themselves of what they think is true. I think there are a lot of analytical perspectives, just straight information that people are not presented with. The only thing I would like to be able to contribute is that. I think by and large audiences recognize that. I think the reason people come is because that’s what they want to hear. There are many people around the country, all sorts of people, who feel that they simply do not have access to an awful lot of information, analysis, interpretation, that is relevant to understanding the world, and I think it’s a very healthy reaction to try to gain such access.” Bravo Chomsky, you certainly are using your ethos to persuasive uses. Chomsky is arguably the most important intellectual alive, and therefore, anything he say's about anything requires the public to pay attention. The pic is none other than 'El Presidente of Venezuela' Hugo Chavez holding what the world should be reading, Chomsky's: "Hegemony Or Survival America's Quest For Global Dominance".

visit to see Chavez on Chomsky here on you tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6WX64O8S1U

The Fundamental Activist

I thought it would be a good idea to differentiate what we as a class think is the difference between fundamentalists and activists. I’ve been attempting to draw the line somewhere, and as a society we generally see activism in a positive light and fundamentalism in a negative light. Where can we draw the line? Is one better than the other, or “more right” than the other? How can we establish if a person is being a fundamentalist or an activist?

Wikipedia says that “fundamentalism is a movement or attitude stressing strict and literal adherence to a set of basic principles” while activism “can be described as intentional action to bring about social or political change. This action is in support of, or opposition to, one side of an often controversial argument”

However, when we talked about activism in class, we had a much broader description.

Do you guys agree with wikipedia? I understand that the two are not necessarily mutually exclusive but then what makes them different? Can a fundamentalist be and activist or vice versa? Furthermore do you think that it is even important to make this distinction?

The Pursuit of Emptiness

Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness.
- Chuang-Tzu (350 B.C.)

"Chuang-Tzu had it right. No more need be said. But such is human nature that the more succinctly we state the truth, the better we become at ignoring it."

Full Article

Also, the obligatory GO BEARS!

ethical guidelines - how we'll behave.

this list will probably evolve somewhat but, for now, our classroom rules stand as follows:

1. no interrupting - let your classmates speak!

2. no hand raising necessary - once you're certain someone has gotten her or his idea out, feel free to respond. caroline will still moderate the conversation somewhat to ensure that everyone (even the shy folks) gets a chance to speak.

3. once a debate has hit an obvious impasse, agree to disagree. this does NOT mean that we won't engage in productive dialogue that gets us somewhere. it does mean that we won't waste half of class with two people saying, "YES!" "NO!" "YES!" "NO!" "YES!" "NO!"

4. remember that argument does not equal character. just because someone's ideas seem stupid, odd, whatever to you, you can (and should) still treat that person with respect.

5. when we see each other outside of class we will acknowledge each other in some kind way - a simple hello, secret sign, high five for justin, etc.

Banana RhePublic

Personally, I'm not much of an activist. I spend more time in a lab blowing things up than out in a public gathering, so this community happening thing is going to be pretty new to me.
This brings to me the question of what effectively count as Community Happening? If bible study is a rhetoric gathering, does going to buddhist temple on sundays to listen to sermons count (it's not necessarily an interactive experience, but the head monk talks about some interesting stuff)? What about a seminar about new technologies in Chemical Engineering? Do I have to speak up and debate in these events? Does this event have to pertain to specific interest groups (i.e. People Against Meat, UIC Anime Fan Club, Bible Studies) ?
I wish to clearify this issue early on so I don't have to 'force' myself to join .... let's say... People Against Meat.... when I'm going to go back home and grill myself a korean bbq for dinner. Is this a serious thing or is any voluntary gathering ok?