Ramage Moving Forward..

As I consider how my paper is going to shape up, it was nice to see Ramage move away from some of his previously abstract thoughts and targets recognizable examples in Chapter 2 some of which we discussed. However it seems that Ramage felt the need to delve back into the frey of Rhetoricspeak with words such as solipsism and chimerical. This certainly does not help the reader's understanding of the text...but knowing Ramage is probably wasnt intended to. In my paper I will probably address relativism versus pluralism in some form and the interesting differences/similarities between coercion and persuasion. The examination of propaganda is definately relevant in today's world climate and will try to look at its many uses and Ramage's belief about how it is used. I also hope to address Ramage's section-"Act as Medium:..." on page 86 and continues where he takes on the job of analyzing President Bush's SOUA and its implications for war. I found Ramage's "call and response" to be quite interesting and the insincerity of the mentioned event quite true. Ramage is right on point when he disects Bush's persuasive argument by stressing the potential dangers the United States could face. I think President Bush was not vilified by the American people during the speech due to the thought of another September 11th type attack. Any sliver of doubt regarding our nation's safety struck a cord with many Americans. Examining Ramage's points on ethos would also be worthy discuss in my paper. A poignant question to entertain: Was Bush practicing propaganda or was the intelligence to blame?, an honest evaluation will point to at minimum a substantial use of propaganda by the administration(Karl Rove & Cheney). Ramage evidently decided to make the second half of this chapter much more interesting and truly applicable to current rhetorical items. I found the political discussion to be a nice relief from some of his prior rants. His mention of the audience may be one of the most important points he makes throughout as without an audience that buys into your expression the content is meaningless. The "axis of evil" regarding N. Korea and Iraq is quite a compelling choice of words due to the following.......axis-brings to mind our enemies in WWII-Nazi Germany, Japan,etc and evil-used at the time was tired directly to terrorism, thus providing a powerful message to the American people. So overall I hope to use aspects of Ramage's relativism/pluralism, propaganda/ethos and more.

Chris