21st Century connections
A unique characteristic of John Locke’s rhetorical ideas is that, overall, he found rhetoric to most times be deceitful, misused, and much too powerful for its own good — he even called it “the art of fallacy.” He preferred to consider knowledge entirely separate from rhetoric, as rhetoric often muddles the truth. He didn’t believe that rhetoric was inherently bad; he simply believed that it was used badly. This idea can be proven true throughout the ages, even up to the 21st century. Whether it be in entertainment, politics, advertisements, or religion, rhetoric can be found to be deceitful and effectively persuasive (misused) every single day.
Entertainment: Movie trailers are often misleading, and can sometimes even be more entertaining than the film itself. In this article from Santa Clara University, Larry Cook was in charge of creating an enticing trailer for an absolutely horrible movie. "People say there is no truth in advertising and that trailers lie," said Larry, "I would agree with that statement.” "In this industry I'm forced to bend the truth to make the product look more appealing. But the general public should realize what I'm doing," he said. — The problem is that they often don’t. http://www.scu.edu/ethics/dialogue/candc/cases/deceitfulmovietrailor.html |
Politics: In this particular story from August 2012, Mitt Romney’s campaign manager, Matt Rhoades, accused President Obama of “deceitful rhetoric,” going back to July when Obama’s campaign claimed that Romney “could be guilty of a felony.”
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/08/romney-campaign-accuses-president-obama-of-deceitful-rhetoric/ “[…] the president’s responses were at best less than candid and at worse downright misleading.” Advertisements: This article from October 2013 discusses the misleading or completely false claims of drug commercials on television. “The frequency of potentially misleading claims in drug advertising is in conflict with proponents who argue the social value of drug advertising is found in informing consumers about drugs,” conclude the study’s authors. “These results, combined with the results from previous studies, indicate a wider pattern of persuasion and deception in drug advertising to consumers.” http://www.minnpost.com/second-opinion/2013/10/majority-tv-drug-ads-make-misleading-or-false-claims-study-finds Religion: In 2009, the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God claimed that their “blessed oil” could help to cure serious medical conditions. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) had this poster censured. http://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/sep/23/asa-religious-poster-blessed-oil |