After reading chapters 7,8,9 there were various useful tips and strategies of Ethos and Pathos which made me think and make connections with past experiences. One was practical wisdom "the appearance of knowing what to do"(p.67). This is something many politicians use now a day as a mean to try to convince people to follow them, which I find to be really dangerous. What I learned from chapters 7 through 9 is that If you apply ethos and pathos correctly you have the ability to have certain leverage over people to make them do what you want. This was what I found disturbing as its a potential weapon which already has been used by many people one of them is Hitler. He was very clever on his use of rhetoric by knowing how to use it he was able to stir and manipulate peoples emotions on a very big scale, he knew how to use anger, patriotism and emulation correctly.
After seeing all the tools you can use to make people change their minds I just couldn't keep away the thought that the point of using them is to manipulate people to your own interest. This is what I found unsettling i'm not sure if i am seeing it very radically but Heinrichs is teaching us how to manipulate people. Not only how to do it, but most importantly how to do it well so that there are no flaws. So to be able to manipulate someone we first have to convey practical wisdom which making you seem to share the audience's value "when you seem to share your audience's values, they believe you will apply them to whatever choice you help them make"(p.67). By having practical wisdom you can show yourself as the leader they want. The next step is to show Aristotle's "disinterested goodwill"(p.72). This is the use of selflessness to enhance your likability "make your audience believe in your selflessness-by seeming either wholly objective or nobly self-sacrificing"(p.73). This tools were to perfect your ethos to make people want to follow you, if you have this then you already posses peoples interest and willingness. After this you can use emotions to get them to do what you want either through telling an experience or showing the future, as well as through anger, patriotism and emulation.
By using all this elements you can be able to manipulate people, but I want to make clear that my use of the term "manipulate" is not used in a bad way. After reading I saw the power behind well used rhetoric and how useful it really is. It is able to make people do either good or bad although they may not know like in the Hitler case it made a whole population do heinous crimes and act completely oblivious to what was happening. It took away the moral and ethical as people didn't really know or care if their actions were moral or ethical. Rhetoric is an untamed beast...
Vocab:
delve: research or make painstaking inquiries into something; reach inside a receptacle and search for something.
vicarious: experienced in the imagination through the feelings or actions of another person; acting or done for another.
