Thursday, April 8, 2010

chap 10 rhetorical act 3

This "stylistic" paragraph is an excerpt from from an essay I wrote last year called "Escaping the Skinner Box" that was a response to another essay. The "plain" paragraph is something I came up with to show the dichotomy. (I know I kind of did the exercise backwards, but I tend to write stylistically all the time because its easier for me to think in figures and tropes rather than just a plain style)

Plain- The fact remains that within a system a profound talent can easily elevate his or herself. Without surprise the system is not meant to be easily analyzed it banks on protecting itself. The responsibility of the talented and creative population is large because they are the ones who can change the path for the masses. It is not hard to conceive why it is for this reason that many of the creative talent become apathetic towards his or her environment and the seemingly unchangeable system.

Stylistic- The point nevertheless, remains that within the rules of a system profound and monumental talent can elevate easily, presumably because he can see outside of the system, he can see possibilities that those who are so intertwined with the system are oblivious to. This is not surprising though, the system isn’t meant to be transparent, the system is made to be deceiving and self-preservatory. The load on the shoulders of the profound talent is gargantuan because with his gift of sight he can see the flaws of the system and knows that they are inevitably recurring and that it is not until all bridges over troubled water have been burned and forgotten can there be any hope of a new more humane, more civilized, and less deceiving system can dig root and evolve. Cue the apathy; it’s not hard to see why the heart of humanity, the talent chooses to, instead of fighting the losing battle of changing the unchangeable system, in quiet anger manipulating the system to thrive at the expense of it and its minions respectively out of the resentment to its injustices.

chap 10 rhetorical act 2

This is an excerpt from a an essay I wrote for a scholarship like a month ago, that I recently found out I was chosen for, regardless, I think that I use figures and the occasional trope unconsciously more than I thought. I know that I use a lot of appositives, long participial phrases, parallelism, and other things I don't even remember the name of but that's because I had this crazy ap english teacher in high school who pounded us with ridiculous amounts syntax and for some reason where none of the math stuck grammar just kind of did.

The question for the essay went something like: “What are your aspirations and goals?” These were some of my ideas I brainstormed before I wrote the paragraph and used some figures.
I want to learn and I am grateful for the opportunity I have to study at as diverse university as Colorado State University Pueblo.

The General Public does not have equal access to the law that the wealthy do.

With this knowledge and a college education I would serve pueblo by providing equal access to legal representation regardless of financial circumstances.

Paragraph:
In the next five years I see myself continuing my education. I want to learn; I am grateful for the opportunity I have now to study at such a diverse University as Colorado State University-Pueblo and would not trade it. However, I have long dreamed of attending Law school. Along with the world class education and critical thinking skills acquired in law school, much of my motivation to strive to attend law school resides in my basic feelings about the correlation between education and freedom. The General Public does not have equal access to the law that the wealthy do, we all know this. Through education an individual gains freedom. Freedom is the ability to identify and help change the injustices in a society. Therefore I believe that in today’s society there are few things that symbolize freedom on a more intimate level that having an extensive knowledge of the law. Motivated by this foundation and armed with a law school degree I would serve Pueblo by providing quality equal access to legal representation regardless of financial circumstances.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

rhet act 1 chap 9

Exordium- The future, not the past, dictates the present.

Narration- The sense of time, Kairos that the Ancient Greeks articulated not solely with regard to identifying the right opportunity to speak symbolized a unique sense of time completely independent of chronos. Chronos, the perception of time in which the “present,” the conception of now, directs sensory perception to only a biological being’s current position in space and time muting the senses to consciousness of the “past,” what happened a second ago, and the “future,” what will happen a second from now. Kairos on the other hand…

Partition- In a purely physical world where the biological variable is eliminated from the equation, quantum mechanics, the art of measuring, quantitatively, the action of subatomic particles, finds itself innately entangled with a highly complex conception of the time dimension referred to by the Ancient Greeks as Kairos.

Peroration- Perception of the present is efficient for humans in an evolutionary sense. Throughout the biological evolution of man one would expect that our Chrono-conception of time as opposed to a kairotic sense of time benefited the species greatly and has been inherently important to the survival and thriving of the species, through group hunting and gathering, and, in the development of agriculture, industry, and technology. The trend that has appeared is that man is at a faster and faster fate reaching these pinnacles of evolution. Take for example the number of years between the evolution from hunting and gathering to agriculture versus the rate of evolution observed in the short time between the industrial revolution and the successful firing of the Large Hadron Particle Collider in Geneva (that happened Tuesday by the way). Man is evolving at a faster and faster rate due to the immense speed and copia of information available. Therefore once evolution reaches a point where it is physically measured instantaneously the human conception of time will evolve along with it to an overall encompassing perception of the past present and future, kairos.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

intro to law prog part 2 and 3

Intro- The Colorado minimum wage laws remain a large crutch to the functioning of the state infrastructure by continually trapping Coloradoans from a low Socio-economic background in a vicious cycle of poverty.
Hostile Crowd- Although we live in meritocratic society where if one is intelligent and works hard enough they can vertically raise their status from poor to affluent, it must be recognized that life chances, including getting an education and getting out of low income neighborhoods for families in poverty is almost impossible on a minimum wage income of 7.25 in Colorado.

Constitutionality/Consistency- The distribution of income obviously favors the middle and upper class citizens in American and more and more do we see the concentration of income and wealth in these respective classes irrespective of the American ideology of equality. Today in America, equality is going to cost you and minimum wage can’t afford it.
Hostile Crowd- If America is truly the land of equality then the gap between the lower class income and middle and upper class income should not have the wide gap it does today. It is not only unfair to the families trying to survive and raise children on a 7.25 an hour salary but is respectively unfair to those who end up paying taxes to support these same families when they must go on welfare.

Justice- It is only just that the government passes legislation to begin to close the gap between the economic classes with the idea of reaching some version of economic equality. Raising the state minimum wage would be a first step in the right direction.
Hostile Crowd- In this economic recession we all must tighten our belts; we all know and understand this. However, we must also help to support our fellow Americans whether they are rich or poor, whether he or she owns a large business and now more than ever feels the pain of the recession, or the cashier working for minimum wage at a local grocery store trying to feed two elementary school aged children. We all must do our part.

Expediency- Now is not the time to debate whether there is a problem with the labor laws in not only Colorado but in the United States because while Republicans and Democrats at the Capital in Denver are debating whether or not there are really poverty stricken people living on the lower east side of Pueblo Colorado, there are mothers who cannot afford to buy enough food to feed her kids until her next pay check.
Hostile Crowd- We all are hurt by the malicious labor laws dictating unrealistic minimum wages in Colorado. If the working class cannot afford to live then how can they be expected to continue to work and contribute to the infrastructure keeping the institutions the middle and upper class depend on for their way of life. Raising the minimum wage will be an investment into the future of life as we have come to expect where around every corner there is some working class laborer behind that Starbucks counter making minimum wage brewing your coffee.

Practicability- It is only practical that the minimum wage be raised in Colorado, unless of course, the state is trying to somehow sit back and wait until the lower class fades away into poverty. Out of sight out of mind, right?
Hostile Crowd- Is it practical to raise the minimum wage in Colorado for the middle and upper class citizens? Many of whom bled sweat and tears to reach the prestigious status they have obtained in his or her life. The answer is logically, no. Raising the minimum wage would more likely than not have some negative repercussions to the taxes of the mentioned groups as government and businesses will have to find ways to rebalance their budgets to cater to new labor laws. However impractical it might be the real question lies in theoretical question, “Do all Americans deserve at least an opportunity join in the race for the pursuit of happiness through education and occupation?”

Conclusion- to truly be a country where one can come from rags and through individual talent rise in his or her life to riches, they playing field must be even. Raising the minimum wage in Colorado is the first step in achieving this goal.
Hostile Crowd- The notion of freedom and the American dream is the reason our families immigrated to this country and to deny the poor in America even the most minute chance to succeed by keeping them poor with minimum wages that are not sufficient enough to support ones basic needs is a tragic evolution of American Business ethics that needs to be corrected with policy immediately.

intro to law prog

Introduction- the Supreme Court decision to allow cap less donations to congressional campaigns by corporate businesses is an insult to the checks and balance system of the United States. The very idea of this decision defended by those who define political donations as an extension of the first amendment, more specifically the freedom of political expression is trudging very dangerous waters. If this sort of judicial philosophy continues to resonate as the ethical guiding compass of the Supreme Court, the future for both the sovereignty of the nation and true representative democracy will be highly in question.

Constitutionality/consistency- Constitutionality, as we all know, is highly subjective to interpretation, interpretation guided by partisan politics rather than a veil of ignorance that defines and separates the American Justice system from other corrupt systems around the world. Allowing faceless corporations to donate large sums of money to congressional campaigns destroys the representative stratification of the common American citizen in elections.

Justice- A partisan justice system by definition is not only unjust but intolerable. The notion that political agendas, either liberal or conservative, conservative in this instance, furthermore big business conservative agenda, may be the deciding factor in senatorial elections is frightening to the power of the democratic voice in America.

Expediency- This decision is an issue that must be tended to immediately with either strong legislation or an amendment to the constitution overriding the Supreme Court’s decision. The main idea behind the decision of the court is that share holders in corporations deserve to have their voices heard in the election process, just like all Americans are entitled to; however, many of these corporations in question are multi-national corporations whose largest share holders are foreign. This means that some of the biggest campaign contributions in American elections could be coming from Chinese or Middle Eastern share holders who would in essence be buying American politicians. Now is the time to suffocate the flames of this misled decision before the sanctity of the sovereignty of the United States is put into jeopardy.

Practicability- It is not practical for the first amendment to be interpreted in such an ambiguous manner. By allowing interpretations of the constitution such as the recent Supreme Court decision to go uncontested will only open a can of worms where the constitution can be extrapolated in illogical manners to suit special interests.
Conclusion- To extrapolate ludicrous partisan interpretations of constitutional amendments from concrete ideas regarding the inalienateable freedoms of Americans like the Supreme Court decision to allow corporate companies to donate uncapped amounts of money to congressional elections under the first amendment is a tragedy for democracy.

rhetorical act chap 8

Listening to the propositions being circulated in my community, I see extremely large amounts of date and testimony being used as proof in discourse. Furthermore, more and more, I see extrinsic evidence completely replacing intrinsic means of invention. Like the book asserts, people are shying away from using the proof found within the art of rhetoric. Consequently, this trend leads to the loss of the ability for the general public to be able engage in and interpret the rhetorical issues, of any extraction, anymore. I believe that both intrinsic invention and extrinsic testimony and date are necessary in rhetoric and communication in general. It appears that this trend might be attributed to the high speed of information transmission. There is no time for people to look deeply into the issues so they rely on testimony and date to form their opinions for them. Also, invention through intrinsic means is looked at as sophistry that is not to be trusted; neglecting the fact that being engaged in discussion is more times than not more important than being right. Looking at some of the works I have composed recently, it is apparent that I make a conscious effort to build arguments through intrinsic means of invention and only use date and testimony to further support my claims. To me it is a matter of ethics, I am extremely skeptical of the credibility of those who base arguments solely on extrinsic proofs. I think that it is too easy for extrinsic date to be manipulated to suit an interest group and be presented as undisputable fact. Extrinsic proofs, in my rhetoric, are used carefully, and more times than not, are simply used as supplementary support for intrinsic arguments and do not stand alone as indubitable proof.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

rhetorical act #2

Rhetorical activities #2
The term “war on terror” is an ameliorative term for terrorists that raise their rhetorical status from what they really are, criminals, to what they want us to think of them as, soldiers, furthermore soldiers of God.
1. The Rhetorical Situation
A town hall in Colorado Springs. The point for discussion: War on terrorism. Furthermore the repercussions of the terminology implemented since 9/11 regarding the “war on terror.”
2. Why is the Audience Hostile?
The audience is hostile for a number of reasons. First they are hostile as a community in close proximity to a large concentration of Military families who inherently disagree with anyone who questions the aspects of the war they may have friends and family serving in.
3. List emotional response to issue/situated ethos
- Anger- for perceived unpatriotic
- Fear- of terrorism should the war be abruptly ended
- Possibly hope/optimism?- should the audience be persuaded
4. List some pathetic proofs
- Calling the campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq “war on terror” raises terrorists to the status of warrior from rightful status criminal
- Kids are recruited into terrorist organizations by propaganda (rhetoric) put out to romanticize notions of being soldiers of Allah. If we portray these terrorists to the world as criminals, they will lose their edge of prestige thereby facilitating the fall of these schools of thought.