Want to make millions and be famous? Just learn to be a good public polemicist*. The highest paid in media and government are the most popular polemicist. Like the rich, ancient Greek sophist Gorgias, our popular media figures and politicians motivate the masses for profit and power. Their swift and sensationally reasoned rhetoric is crafted to capture our hearts--they know our minds will follow. The best of the modern polemicist, like the playful Gorgias, know they are deceiving, the worst deceive themselves . In either case the polemicist's devotees are their source of notoriety and income; dependent on their popularity. This wicked brew of cognitive dissidence has propelled our partisan, consumer-driven, codependent media and public officials into a destructive and disheartening dialog of insignificance. Arguments, if every non-recursive, quickly become so.
Disenchantment, disgust, and disengagement accrue in the non-polemicist: those who use non-ideologic methods for analysing and synthesizing useful ideas. It seems our voice is drowned out by the cacophony of self-righteous opinion leaders who vehemently "know;" never mind their knowing is motivated by a fear of losing personal significance in a disheartening dialog of insignificance.*A polemic is defined as an aggressive attack on, or refutation of the principals or opinions of another.
Sincerely,
Lawrence Feriozzi
By that definition aren't we all sometimes polemic differentiated only by our levels of sponsorship and general acceptance, or am I projecting :)
ReplyDeleteTechnically you could make a case. But for the lucid, honest, and open-minded, its only academic--relative to the the extremes I refer to. Thanks Alex for being my first comment.
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