Ethos, Logos, and Pathos: An ode to Obama's auditory pornography

I don’t care if you knew what Ethos, Logos or Pathos meant but the phrase “auditory pornography” caught your attention. Now as original as I would like to think myself I didn’t come up with any of those phrases on my own. I will however have to correct any misleading overtones that might have led to your conjecture; it has nothing to do with sex. So what are Ethos, Logos and Pathos? I’m going to thread some stories as to save some rather plebian thoughts to you my audience and direct it towards the subject of my composition.

Let’s begin with this thought: The English can still teach us a thing or two about well, English. In the post modern and frenetic CNBC style of information as a medium; the use of the English language as something other than a conduit to that mean is falling steeply out of vogue. The reason stems from the un-distilled nature of our media digestion in this day and age. What has overly stimulated our senses in this post modern age is vastly visual. I’m no exception because I partake in the visual stimulation that provokes a thin line between ambivalence and appreciation. I have become an “artist” to which my friends, is the subject of my entry today; “The Artisan.” Who is this “Artist” you ask? Who else except the great orator of our generation, Mr. President-Elect himself Barack Obama.

In an article this weekend in the Financial Times titled: “Man of his words,” the story of his ascension is deliberated against the shadow of manipulative rhetoric. Rhetoric seems foreign to some of us but if you have ever listened to a cut from my favorite rapper Jay-Z; you too are appreciating the works of Ethos, Logos and Pathos. Mr. Obama to many skeptics have criticized that much of his platform was built on words. To them the fulfillment of those actions will insinuate success or failure. I disagree in that the power to convince, manipulate and offer hope will ultimately shape the future of a nation. I am a true believer that as long as we are human and possess ears and emotions we will always be under the sway of just that, words. Nothing is more powerful in this world than words and further, oratory rhetoric. The old adage holds sway that the pen is mightier than the poignant sword. Nations have changed, fallen, risen, conquered and lived on through the delivery of words. Forget not that the evil one attests to Adolf Hitler was not power ascended through coup d’etat, but through democracy. A platform built upon hatred but nonetheless from his oratory platform of rhetoric. Don’t confuse my comparison of Hitler with Obama because that would be an illogical argument. The terse idea that I provide is one that should encourage you to be a student of rhetoric and possibly understand its grand visage. In a structured near messianic delivery of Obama’s presidential victory in Chicago, he uses the same logic that Aristotle lays out. In fact all of his speeches including that of other great orators follow the same logic.

Ethos: How well the speaker convinces the audience that he has credence.
Logos: The logical appeal of the actual argument. Datasets, facts, etc.
Pathos: Moving the audience to action through emotional manipulation.

These three concepts have been around since ancient Hellenic times. I remember only briefly during formal study in university touching upon these vagaries. Personally I have factored heavily towards rhetoric as a discipline since early childhood; it has never left me and thus my fascination with oration. Until you truly contemplate the theory and object of power, you won’t have a deep appreciation of the art. Just like any other art, rhetoric is meant to compel the audience just like visual art. The power to connect to humanity is an art to the highest degree. Why do you think rap as a medium is so powerful. As a matter of fact most of rap’s lyrical stimulation follow the patterns of yet another ancient principal, iambic pentameter. You see in my opinion Obama doesn’t actually have to execute everything that he said to be a great amongst The Greats. He simply needs to compel hope, pride and confidence in order to move a nation to their knees by the relics of Ethos, Logos, and Pathos.

To leave you with the power of rhetoric I offer you the following:

“We few we happy few we band of brothers. For he who sheds his blood with me today shall be my brother. And those gentlemen now abed in England shall think themselves accursed for they were not here with us today.” – Shakespeare’s Henry V

“If I should die, think only this of me: That there’s some corner of a foreign field that is forever England.” - Rupert Brooke

“ I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land! So I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!” – Dr. Martin Luther King, American Civil Rights leader

“…nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change. We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics…they will only grow louder and more dissonant…We’ve been asked to pause for a reality check. We’ve been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope. But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.”
“Hope is what I saw…Hope is what I heard…Hope is what led a band of colonists to rise up against an empire.” – Barack Obama, 44th President Elect of The United States of America

Black Eye Peas version if you haven't seen it already. This is the perfect cadence to oratory rhetoric, I'll be darned if you tell me this doesn't stir some strings.