WRT: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mukto-mona/message/47421
Dr. Audrey Manning wrote:
"[I] have in fact read what Obama is saying and he is saying what everyone wants to hear. But I didn't have to read anything to know that. I have heard it all many times before. Before I read anything, I could have written his speeches word for word. They displays an Oprah and company philosophy.
The content of speeches is not, however, the point. The point is how people respond to people who can speak well in public. The fact is some people would hail Obama if he spoke a foreign language."
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An example of post-hoc fallacy: What is being claimed here in the name of Obama is quite an amazing feat actually, and that is to know from beforehand what "everyone wants to hear!" The rigor of public speaking is being relegated to the realm of Gypsy-tent glass-ball peering. Yet Obama is being jeered as the 'savior' and 'messiah' by these very people.
We might as well throw all the old textbooks on Rhetoric in the trash bin. Rhetoric, Aristotle told us, is the noble art of persuasion. The whole question of persuasion would be moot if all one has to do (in all situations of verbal or non-verbal communication of life, but, especially in a political campaign speech) is to say what "everyone wants to hear." And that is assumed to be easy, a piece of cakewalk! What a disrespectful, utterly unrealistic, life-negating presupposition!
Or, one can hum "Prejudices are made of these" to the tune of Perry Como's famous song.
Here I am, minding my business as a voter in a Presidential election in the U.S.A. I'm not what they call an 'independent' -- I'm a registered Democrat. In New York State that allows me to vote in the affiliated Party Primaries. From a couple of my previous posts it should be clear to the forum members that I am civic-minded enough to be involved in local electoral politics, and have been watching Obama as a rising star in the national politics since the election cycle of 2004. Why was my support for Obama called "jumping on the bandwagon" in an accusatory, dismissive and condescending tone?
Like millions of other Dem party voters in the U.S. I am riling in frustration over the two incomprehensible victories by George W. Bush. Like millions all across the globe I joined the protest march in the bitter cold morning of the 15th Feb., 2003 against invasion of Iraq by America. [Obama's supporters mostly come from this brood of people, the Howard Dean crowd, the 'move on.org' crowd, the 'Not-in-my-name' crowd joined by Cindy Sheehan crowd. These are all ground level hard-working principled activists. Is this a 'bandwagon' and if so, why? What is so mysterious about Obama's support? A Canadian cannot understand that? It is really hard to believe. Where had she been?]
Can someone explain to me why Farida Majid is being singled out as a target for unspeakable 'ad hominem' attack for the crime of supporting Barack Obama as my party's nomination for president? It was extraordinarily venomous, unsparing to my gender, my age, my profession as if these things were pertinent to the issue at hand. It was a pathetic display! This sure stands out as a great model of incivility --a model of "bad as I wanna be" type of ad hominem attack that would be hard to surpass! Next in the line of fire could be my sick mother (a dedicated social worker all her life), her father, my father, his father, etc. May be my uncle would be brought in the fray, my cousins, their children, etc., who knows! I dread to think where the line is to be drawn once the norm of civility is broken.
A grimace is a poor substitute for intelligently argued case. Syllogisms are classroom exercises -- only people of certain age deem them to be the end of logic, not merely the means. Someone else is always responsible for your incivility towards others, not you. Blame the other person for the very misdemeanors you are committing against that person. We need Sigmund sahib here, or his daughter, Anna Freud who produced her landmark study of Defense Mechanism in 1946 without the help of her father.
Best of luck!
Farida Majid
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