Unit 2, Blog 2

A robot, an activist, and a conspiracy theorist go into a bar. They plop down on their respective stools. The bartender says, "What'll y'all have?" They chime almost in unison, "a rhetorical triangle". The bartender looks puzzled. "I don't think I've ever made one of those before. What is that?" he asks. The robot answers in a monotone voice; "it is when you use pathos, ethos, and logos effectively in order to persuade your audience to conform to your viewpoint". The activist and conspiracy theorist simply nod their heads in agreement. Bartender scratches his head. "Hmmmm, okay. Never heard of any concoction that can do that, but I’ll try." He looks at the robot and says “so where can I get pathos? Is that a liqueur?" The robot again states in his flat voice, "I am not able to tell you. I don’t have the ability to feel empathy, fear, anger or any emotion. These are always missing when I present an argument to my audience. Unfortunately, I cannot engage my audience based on emotion, or even show images to evoke them. I wish I had emotions so I could connect with their values and choose appropriate language to persuade them, but alas, I cannot. I would only use logos and ethos; at least a majority of humans trust evidence from a computer." Now totally confused, the bartender looks at the activist and says, "okay, fine...so where do I find this logos? Is that the brand or the manufacturer?" The activist puts his head down and for the first time the bartender notices the sign the activist is holding by its wooden stick handle. Only the sign is blank. The activist shamefully mutters, "I don't know where to find logos. I have plenty of pathos because I present my views very, very passionately and this helps my audience to connect with me and support my cause. I even have plenty of credibility; they're calling it ethos these days. People routinely turn to me for organizing fundraisers at our political party's headquarters, but I cannot for the life of me offer a cohesive message to my audience, as you can see by this blank sign. And my evidence is pretty shaky too." By now the bartender is getting irritated, puts both hands on top of his head and looks at the conspiracy theorist and curtly says, "I don't suppose you can tell me where to find ethos for this Rhetorical Triangle?" the conspiracy theorist says, "Actually, no I can't. You see I am a master at pathos. I’m an expert at using fear and intimidation to try and incite an audience to action. Why I can use logos to connect facts and figures so effectively, that the sinister plot becomes plain as day! The bummer is no one pays any attention because they say I lack the credibility of a 'serious' player. Try getting a job in this economy when nobody takes you seriously. Besides it's all a conspiracy theory to doom the world anyway." "That’s it!" shouts the bartender. "I've had it! I've sat here for five minutes while you guys tell me that you want a rhetorical triangle and the only thing I know is that it requires pathos, logos, and ethos...ingredients you claim make effective arguments, when really I only know how to make drinks. Good luck on your arguments!"