Americans' concerns about moral decline

William S. Lear rael at zopyra.com
Fri Jun 25 15:46:16 PDT 1999


On Friday, June 25, 1999 at 12:46:32 (-0400) Doug Henwood writes:
>...
>What is "workers of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but
>your chains" but a soundbite with an emotional hook? It makes an
>appeal to collectivity and the longing for freedom. It's the
>conclusion of a brilliant piece of polemical prose that uses rational
>argument, but hot rhetoric too.

And are the workers less in chains today than they were when this rhetoric was first uttered? I also think there were some very serious problems in the rational argument that preceded these words. Perhaps this is evidence that more attention should be paid to the argument and less to the rhetoric --- or perhaps I'm just wrong. I'm sorry you think it "high-minded" of me to want to shun the techniques of PR in creating a better world, and I'm very aware that human relations are built on many things other than dry analyses --- but perhaps you misunderstand that I'm not against passion and emotion. I just don't like to see it carefully planned out. I think a Brecht and a Chomsky can coexist very effectively on the left, but when they start reading from the same People's Handbook of Public Relations, the game is over.

Bill



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