The Beauty of Arguing

Never thought that a book called Thank You for Arguing could be so interesting. At least to a teenager’s point of view. For those who do not know what this book is about, here is a little summary, “What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson can teach us about The Art of Persuasion.” After reading Chapter 2 of this book, I know how useful arguing can be. Not only for school purposes, but to get you out of trouble in real life situations. To all my AP Lang friends out there, an argument could be the perfect moment for you to use that rhetoric you have got in you.

One of the most appealing things about this book was the comedy. Oh the beauty of comedy. Lets just start by the subtitles: “How to Seduce a Cop,” and “How to Manipulate a Lover.” I know all of you are trying to answer these questions in your head, but only Jay Heinrichs, the author of the book, has the right answers. Just say to the cup “Whoa, luck me up!” (20), and to your lover, “Voulez vous coucher avec moi ce soir” (21). Keeping it simple. In my opinion, he is an introverted guy. with a taste of music that includes Christina Aguilera.

According to the author, there are three steps for persuading:

1.     Changing you audience’s mood

2.     Changing their mind

3.     Get the audience to do something or to stop doing it

Changing the mood according to Heinrichs is “the easiest goal” (23). For example take someone that is sad, let them know they should be happy and explain why it beneficiates him/her. Now that is a simple example, let us take one known by a great amount of people. Elections. To be more specific, Venezuelan elections. Analyzing the first candidate. Chavez, winner of the elections, gave his same b%$^s&^& he has given for the last fourteen years of power and wins with a 54% of the votes. Second Candidate: Henrique Capriles Radonski. He was the governor of Miranda and went for the chance of changing Venezuela and being elected as president of the Republic. He lost, but he did get a 44% of the votes, it might not sound as much well there was a big difference between him and Chavez, but it is the closest anyone has ever been in this combat against the Venezuelan president. I, as a Venezuelan, can say Capriles changed Venezuelans mood, in fact, he changed 6 million peoples mood. He came on saying “Hay Un Camino,” and people that thought there was no chance of beating Chavez saw it as an opportunity to change the destiny of the country, and even change some people's mood over if they wanted to vote or not. This could be an example of “changing its mood” (22). This step of persuasion is very common amongst politics and politicians in an argument over who will receive the power.

The example I just mentioned could also be considered as the second and third step. Because when talking about politics argument is probably one of the main things that politicians depend on. As for Chavez and Capriles, or Obama and Romney they all need to use these three steps to convince their audience. Changing mood, mind, and desire to act are musts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DbrPwtZFkw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Owa8L2TIUj8&feature=related
^ These videos are some song of Capriles campaign.