Anger is one of the most potent emotions. In Aristotle’s Rhetoric, anger comes first, followed by other emotions that can be used in attempts to persuade people. If properly and ethically channeled, anger can be a great countermeasure against lying and disinformation. In particular, anger can be effectively used to deter lying and other blatant manipulative … Read more
Whenever you want to counter the indoctrinated thinking and rigid beliefs, try to find an antithetical character to support your position. For example, in an anti-smoking campaign, recruit a heavy-smoker favoring smoking restrictions or a tobacco sales tax increase. In an anti-war campaign, a former (or even better a current) military officer opposing a war … Read more
Joseph Story, an Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court in the first half of the nineteenth century, may be somewhat known to American lawyers, completely unknown to non-American lawyers, and totally irrelevant to everyone else. And yet, his pithy advice on crafting effective arguments, such as “strike but a few blows, but strike them to … Read more