RELIANCE ON RHETORIC

Waipa Post, Volume 32, Issue 1782, 13 July 1926, Page 3

RELIANCE ON RHETORIC

A DANGER TO DEMOCRACY

A good many people are drawn towards the socialist politicians because, as they say, they find them good speakers. The fact is lost sight of that most commonly the demagogue is a good speaker. But what is meant by the phrase? A person may be most fluent in speech,, even eloquent in his utterances, and yet be wholly deceptive and dangerous as a guide. When the matter is examined it will be found that what mostly impresses people is the easy flow of rhetoric which many of the so-called good speakers indulge in. There is the Socialist .Labour politician who declares for the right to work/ What exactly does he mean? In general his hearers do not trouble to inquire. The rhetorical phrase serves its purpose, which is to impress on those who hea r or read it that the party to •which the Socialist belongs has found an absolute panacea for all the troubles incidental to unemployment. Herein lies the danger of' rhetoric that what, is said is not intended in any mannerto explain what is meant. From the right to work our Socialist advocate advances bo a right to payment at. standard rates of pay, and the sum •total 3s a demand for more than is. given, and this on the ground of assumed right. Great is the power, of rhetoric when by the use of a few' catchy words the demogogue can per. suade the multitude, deceiving often himself as well as others. Mr Baldwin, the British prime Minister, on two occasions has spoken wisely on this subject. Here are his remarks:— PLAIN VIRILE .SPEECH. “If there is any class to be regarded with suspicion in a democracy it is the rhetorician—the man who plays on half educated people with fallacies which they are incapable of detecting. More than one democracy has been wrecked by that. We do not want to see a democracy like ours, in which we have faith, and which we believe is destined to do such great things for the world, wrecked on any such ignoble rocks/ Again, speaking on “Rhetoric” at the Cambridge Union in March, 1924, he said : “I am going to give you two or three phrases which I call rhetorical phrases, and each of them, to my mind is pregnant with darkness and confusion. Consider this one of three , words from one of the greatest rhetoricians of the age: ‘Bulging corn bins.’ The ‘democratic control of the means of production’ is another. I tried in the House of Commons'to get that last phrase translated from rhetorical English into English that I could understand, and the only answer I got was that it was impossible to produce rabbits from a top hat. ‘Self determination’ Is another rhetorical term that may some day lead the nations into a bloody war. 'That is what rhetoric does. ‘Homes fit for heroes to live in,’ and a ‘world safe for democracy/ These, to my notind, are the quintessence of rhetoric, and it is against rhetoric in this sense that I am going to vote to-night.” SOCIAL PHRASE-MONGERS. From the time of Karl Marx up till the present the Advocates of ‘Socialism have shown themselves to be masters of this dangerous reliance on the power of rhetoric. Marx himself, whom liis followers call a scientist, led with his slogan ‘Workers of the world/unite, you; have nothing to lose but your chains, you haVe a world to gain.’ It is impossible to think of a real scientist; a Newton, a Darwin or Spencer, giving utterance to such a rhetorical outburst. The whole character of such rhodomantade is ’ foreign to the spirit of modern science. A book might be compiled of the rhetorical phrases created by socialist writers and speakers so numerous are the expressions used not to make clear but solely to impress. There are such as ‘wage slavery.’ the ‘down trodden masses," and so on, words without end. The Bolshevik Socialists of Russia have outdone all their predecessors in this enterprise of the manufacture of fustian speech. The leaders of the Soviet Socialist Republic seem t.o delight in hidden terms to such an extent as to not only, take alias names for themselves but to give them to the institutions. ' They have a thousand and more of rhetorical phrases wherewith to lead, or mislead, the unfortunate people. A GOOD RULE. Some people have complained to us at times that our writing is very plain. We accept this rather as a compliment. Our rule is just to try and say what we mean and nothing more. A good plan we have found it to be, in dealing with rhetoVic, to take' the phrase word by word and examine-, just what they mean in ordinary ac.-*-ceptation. ‘Right to work’ has no meaning until it is clear as to what is ' meant by ‘right,’ So with many other alluring statements. Democracy i s too valuable to be sacrificed on the altar of rhetoric, therefore there is need for vigilance at all times. (Contributed by N.Z. Welfare League.)