Rhetoric and Stereotypes - Essay Example

Starting with politicians, it should be mentioned that in the book Critical Thinking (8th edition) by B. N. Moore and R. Parker, all the interesting and humorous political references were Republicans or conservatives. Stereotypes associated with politicians are frequent cheating and lying. Politicians often use proverbs in their rhetoric to illustrate the positive qualities of their ideas and to lend authority and expressiveness to speeches and writing (Mieder, 1997). For instance, Adolf Hitler used proverbs in his infamous treatise Mein Kampf.

Hitler outlined the goals of National Socialism through proverbs and especially used proverbial expressions when he spoke out against Jews and Communists, picking up phrases from the Bible and religious traditions to illustrate complete hate and anger against many social groups. Winston Churchill read Mein Kampf in translation and saw through Hitler’s use of proverbs into the heart of evil. Churchill turned the tables on Hitler’s rhetoric and used proverbs himself to raise emotions among the Allies.

In many of his famous speeches, Churchill used proverbs to sway his listeners to action (Mieder, 1997, pp. 5-6). Politicians learn early in their careers to use the powers of rhetoric to convince people emotionally and spiritually so they can get their ideas implemented. The next group this essay surveys is tattooed persons. At first it should be mentioned that the tattooing is an art and as such – a language by itself. So the tattooed person’s rhetoric is one extra step removed from spoken language and the tattoos are often hidden.

Tattooed persons are rather talked about, not talking themselves (except through the language of art). One of the most frequent questions that a tattooed person hears, right after “Did that hurt?” is the question “Why did you do it?” This is a question that has as many answers as there are tattoos