2/ A democratically elected leader finds himself in an ambiguous situation: he is appointed as a servant of his constituency by ballot, yet he is subsequently expected to exert robust and steady leadership over them.
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6/ Yet here the leader runs into another terrific problem: people do not like rhetoric. Even though a democratic state relies on debate and discussion, citizens naturally become extremely suspicious of political rhetoric.https://twitter.com/paraschopra/status/858295979811848192 …
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7/ If it is flippant, it is written off as just more dishonest babble from self-interested politicians; if it is persuasive, it is seen as being undemocratically manipulative, thus dangerous. "Best not to fall for the rhetoric and recognize the true agenda." —
@TheStoicEmperorShow this thread -
8/ Rhetoric is thus the primary tool in the democratic leader’s kit, even though rhetoric itself is generally considered pathetically useless (promises sure to be broken) or as treacherous (tyrannically persuasive and illegitimately influential over the minds of the masses).
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9/ Consequently, the democratically elected leader instinctively attempts to make his rhetoric not sound like rhetoric: the “art of artless persuasion”. "When rhetoric becomes the king of quality is when emotion becomes the emperor of knowledge." —
@BlacklabellogicShow this thread -
10/ The democratic leader therefore must seek to persuade without sounding persuasive. He has no choice but to use words to influence people — people who are automatically skeptical of his words to begin with.
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11/ This is the recipe that brews the general attitudes many of us have about politicians: we can never be fully certain that they are ever telling the truth. We must suspect that every statement is just a talking point.
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12/ It’s all strategic jockeying, leveraging, and maneuvering for some agenda. After all, while we demand that our leaders be honest, transparent, and straight to the point, we also know that we will surely punish leaders who simplistically tell us the truth.
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13/ This is one of the great ironies of democracy: we elect people to be calculating and strategic leaders and spokespersons on our behalf, even while we are simultaneously suspicious of the calculating and strategic manner of speech we force them to adopt.
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End of conversation
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