I'm Interested In Disinterest

Every time I continue reading this book I get more and more new ideas of how to manipulate my parents very discreetly and “disinterestly” to give me the things I want.  You have to make it their interest to give you whatever it is you want, and not vice versa. You have to make them think it’s for their good and not your personal.

When you are up to something, you have to “make it seem you have no tricks”(75). You have to be really sneaky about everything and not let them notice what is behind all of that. Just be genuine, (Pause, NOT.)

Dubilatio, oh the romans, they always knew about everything, even one of the early chief rhetoricians, Quintilian knew about rhetoric. “Pretending to be uncertain on how to begin or proceed with his speech” (75)

Abraham Lincoln even used this Dubilatio technique in his campaign, he made it seem like he wasn’t prepared and when he gave his speech in New York he announced that what he was about to say was “nothing new”(76). “Absolutely brilliant”(76). This way, he lowered the audience’s previous expectations about the speech and completely surprised them later.

I know understand how emotions work, people tend to make connections with the “clumsy”(76) speakers and sympathize.

This man really was a genius, more than my mother, he knew exactly how to work with people, no wonder Heinrichs talks about him so much, and he really is worth spending paper on. He was able to make the audience trust him and let the audience know he was being very sincere, and then he would show them that he was really intelligent and that he knew a lot about the country.

Ethos goes way back , even Marie Antoinette used it with her famous frase of “let them eat cake” clearly, didn’t work out so much for her because shw was later guillotined, not as smart as Lincoln I would say, and I’m sure I have people who agree with me too.

Also, you have to make the audience think that you are “disinterested” as another genius of rhetoric Aristotle said. This way, you will be “the most believable”(78). 

Rhetoric Genius

I never knew that my mother was such a rhetoric genius. Apparently, parents “love them [their children] equally but avoid applying the rules consistently”(70).

I’m always annoyed with my mother because I always assume she is being unfair with the things she allows my sister to do some things that she didn’t allow me to do when I was her age.

She get’s to go to parties, and when I was her age I didn’t. I was always aggravated with my mom because I thought she was “the favorite” and that she loved her more than she did me. Also, I was the oldest, and they say that the oldest child always have those problems.

Just five minutes ago as I was reading Heinrich’s opinion on how he deals with his two children I finally understood how sneaky my mom really was, she loves all four of us equally (I hope) she just doesn’t apply the same rule with all of us because we are all very different.

Also, in order to be successful you have to be a “sensible person”(67).  And the audience should trust you, this is where “practical wisdom”(67) comes to play an important role, this is like “common sense” and it will help you “get things done”(67).

Today, General Frasier a graduate of the U.S Air Force Army, told us that you don’t always have to be the prettiest, or the smartest, or the fastest person in order to achieve your goals and be successful in life, but you have to be persistence and be sure of what you want to be in life and have goals. You have to be persistent so you can get what you want.

Apparently, Heinrichs agrees with him, he says that the presidents of the United States that had the highest IQ “were also among the least effective”(68). This means that smart doesn’t always mean effective, you have to have the skills in order to make the right decisions.

Not everyone has these kinds of skills, but apparently they can be taught if I keep reading the book… Let’s continue to chapter 8 shall we….

Making Them Listen

 In order to speak publicly, and do it right you have to have certain things so your talk will be successful. First of all your audience has to be paying attention, they have to be ready to receive all the information you are going to “throw”(56) at them.  Your audience also has to “like and trust you”(56) this way you can make an easier connection with your audience. Ethos plays a very important role in this chapter.

A recent study showed that more people fear public speaking than they do death. This means more people prefer to die, that to speak in front of a public.

We live in a such closed society that everything we are is know to our generation, this is why people already know what to expect from each and all of us.

We all know exactly who are the people that are good in math, and we also know who is the class clown. We know certain people want to do something good in our society, and we know exactly who is going to manipulate us is order to get what they want, and what benefits them.  

Ethos contains three sub categories, one that is my personal favorite, “selflessness, or disinterest” (56). You have to make it clear to the audience that what they want is exactly what you are going to give them, and that for now, it’s your only concern.

I never knew that Lincoln was such a brilliant man, he used things he knew would appeal to his audience, instead of criticizing and going against his audience and trying to teach them something they didn’t want to learn, he switched to their side and talked like them “he never would have become president”(60) if he didn’t appeal to ethos.

I understood that decorum isn’t what you wear but what people think of you, and that even if you are a good person, and people know that, that won’t get you the votes.

Also, I never knew that bragging wouldn’t make you seem like if you were above everyone else, on the contrary, it “shows how great you are”(62) and this gives confidence to your speakers. 

“Let’s airbrush History” This Means War

Wow! This really means war, I never thought that a presidential debate from a country I don’t live in would be so interesting. I don’t know much about foreign policy so throughout the debate I wasn’t really looking to understand what it really was, but I was in fact looking at the reactions of the presidents!

(I remember when Obama was elected as president; we all went to the high school gym to watch the ceremony.)

United States is one of the most if not the most, powerful countries in the world; this is why the person who is going to lead this country has to be a person who is going to be capable of taking on one of the hardest positions in the world. And doing it right! The president of the United States is one of the most influential people in world politics so it is vital for him to be able to assume this role with responsibility since his actions are going to affect the world order.

Obama says, “the world needs a strong America” he knows that this will move a lot of emotions inside every Americans mind since there is such a feeling of  american exceptionalism. This is why he leads such and interesting debate, he wants to win over the people and he wants to win the trust of new followers and regain the trust of those who voted for him in the Last election. if Obama is known for something it is his charisma, but this time the stakes are so high that he needs far more than just a good and prepared speech to win the elections.

They are attacking each other constantly and interrupting themselves, they talk over each other and sometimes they don’t respect what the other one is trying to say. Even if Romney says that “attacking him wont help the country with jobs.” In some points of the debate I would never believe that these two adult men are candidates. Maybe I’m being a bit harsh, but that’s how I felt as I watched the debate. I think that more than just showing what their plans are going to be and trying to sell this to the public, their strategy is to attack and destroy the other opponents campaign so that the only option is for people to vote for them.

One of the things that really surprised me and made me doubt the professionalism of the debate is when Romney used “Obama Bin Laden” when he was in fact talking about Osama Bin Laden (slight confusion right there). We are all humans, and we make mistakes, but this is not a mistake a potential president should make. That’s what I heard at least.

I thought it was interesting how they were both being sarcastic, lets start with Obama, one of my personal favorites is when he says to Romney that the  “cold war has been over for 20 years” and that he doesn’t understand why Romney would say that Russia is their biggest threat. Romney then says that he doesn’t recall ever saying that… Who do we believe?

We hear Romney attacking Obama permanently and reminding him of his past mistakes but we don’t hear plans. But wait. We do, at least I heard it once, he says that he has a 5 step plan to create 12 million jobs, and I like to talk about Romney positively, for once, because he said that Latin America has a lot of opportunities!

Ahhh Education, they do talk about education, yay! Obama points out that Romney said that class sizes don’t really make a difference, but that they actually do!

They start to get personal when they talk about China, Romney says that China is stealing all of out jobs, but at the same time, Obama says that Romney has been involved in business’s that give jobs overseas.

What is true and what isn’t? Who should I believe when they say “What the President just said is not true.”

I think Romney should start apologizing for saying that Obama apologized around the world. This is one thing that confused me throught the debate, even if I was lenient to Obama I didn’t really know who to believe.

It is evident that Obama has much more experience with Foreign policy, and in general I think he will make a better President than Romney would, but that is just me.

Besides, Obama's closing statement was far more touching than Romneys, he totally used pathos!