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Conclusion

On Not Listening

from PART II - Eloquence and the Moderns

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2021

Rob Goodman
Affiliation:
Ryerson University, Toronto
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Summary

The Conclusion demonstrates how the tradition of thinking in terms of rhetorical relationships can illuminate a new problem – in this case, partisan polarization in the United States. The contemporary discourse around polarization casts it as a breakdown in the possibilities of persuasion. For the dominant accounts, the root causes of our polarized politics lie in human psychology and our evolutionary legacy, and to the extent that a solution is possible, it must involve a sweeping program of moral reform. By contrast, an approach grounded in rhetorical relationships would see the polarized citizen as engaged in a deficient, but self-protective, form of listening. Crucially, this listening is the counterpart of the algorithmic and demagogic rhetoric I discussed in the Introduction – deficient, but self-protective, forms of speaking. Just as speakers engaged in those rhetorical pathologies withdraw from the vulnerabilities attendant on speech, polarized citizens withdraw from the vulnerabilities attendant on listening. Just as those pathologies result from an excess of elite risk-aversion, polarized listening is self-defense against the risks and rigors of persuadability. Political “tribalism” is a justifiable response to a broken rhetorical bargain, a refusal to bear the burdens of persuadability under conditions of unmitigated political inequality.

Type
Chapter
Information
Words on Fire
Eloquence and Its Conditions
, pp. 184 - 194
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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  • Conclusion
  • Rob Goodman, Ryerson University, Toronto
  • Book: Words on Fire
  • Online publication: 16 December 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009042840.010
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  • Conclusion
  • Rob Goodman, Ryerson University, Toronto
  • Book: Words on Fire
  • Online publication: 16 December 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009042840.010
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Conclusion
  • Rob Goodman, Ryerson University, Toronto
  • Book: Words on Fire
  • Online publication: 16 December 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009042840.010
Available formats
×