Propaganda and Persuasion

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Propaganda and Persuasion

disqualified any speaker who was "suspected of certain dishonorable acts . he could be prosecuted, not for the offense, but for continuing to speak in the assembly after committing the offense" (Bonner, 1933, p. 80). People studied the art of rhetoric almost as an entire system of higher education, if not a way of life (Hunt, 1925, p. 3). Plato opposed the place of rhetoric in Athenian life as well as whatever part rhetoric had in influencing public opinion. As Hunt (1925) said, "He despised mere opinion almost as much as he did the public" (p. 3). He believed in a government ruled by philosopher-kings and not a govern ment in which rhetoric was employed by those who did not possess true wisdom or knowledge. As a result, two of his writings, the Gorgias and the Phaedrus, attacked rhetoric as a system capable of making the worse appear the better reason. In the Gorgias, Plato criticized the study of rhetoric for misleading people into believing that, by attempting through words to achieve what is good, they could do good. Without insight and wisdom, a person who studied rhetoric was likely to become what we would call a propagandist. Plato, through his spokesman Socrates, posed the following questions: Do the rhetoricians appear to you always to speak with a view to what is best, aiming at this, that the citizens may be made as good as possible by their dis courses? or do they, too, endeavor to gratify the citizens, and neglecting the public interest for the sake of their own private advantage, do they treat the people as children, trying only to gratify them, without being in the least con cerned whether they shall become better or worse by these means? (cited in Cary, 1854, pp. 125-126) Plato became more accepting of rhetoric in the Phaedrus, for Plato admonished the rhetorician to have high moral purpose and knowledge of truth or else not attempt rhetoric at all. Through the exhibition of three speeches about love, which represent three different kinds of speakers, Plato contrasted the neutral, the evil, and the noble lovers/ speakers. The second lover/speaker is evil and insincere and attempts to exploit, deceive, and manipulate his audience, whereas the third lover/ speaker is noble and has a genuine desire to help the audience and to actualize its ideals. Plato summed up the best of the speakers by having Socrates say, A man must know the truth about each particular of which he speaks or writes. . . . Not till then can discourses be artistic as far as it lies in the nature of their genus to be made so, to be controlled by art for the purpose of instruction or persuasion. (cited in Bailey, 1965, p. 51)