The Ethics of Rhetoric

Rhetoric tends to go hand in hand with ethics. While the use of rhetoric can produce a lot of good, it also can have a lot of negative effects. The best example of this can be seen in one of our class discussions on war rhetoric. For instance, Winston Churchill and Adolf Hitler both knew how to use rhetoric greatly. However, looking how history unfolded they both used it in two very different ways. Both used their rhetoric to inspire their countries, but what Hitler did to inspire them lead to genocide and war crimes. This calls into question: what makes rhetoric ethical? The thing about rhetoric is anybody can use it, but those who have proper knowledge can do a lot of good or a lot of damage. I think the defining line here is where one’s rhetoric falls on morality. A perfect example can be seen in The Office during Dwight Schrute’s speech for salesman of the year. In it he uses tips from a speech by from fascist dictator Benito Mussolin’s speech. Using these tactics, Dwight gains the crowd’s attention and eventually wins them over. Though this is a fictional example, both use the same methods of rhetoric, but for different reasons. More importantly, the rhetoric worked in both of these scenarios except each would fall under two very different spectrums of morality. With this reasoning I would argue that people should be more mindful of the message that is being said and not just the way it is presented. One of my favorite points to bring up in debates is that just because you say something louder doesn’t make your point more right. There is a lot of responsibility that can come with using rhetoric and the last thing someone should do is abuse its power.