Check out Rhetoricians for Peace II at Facebook!
We in the field of College Rhetoric, college writing, and the teaching of English have re-created an important communications group at Facebook, formerly managed by Prof. Barry Maid of Arizona State University. RHETORICIANS FOR PEACE’s administration retired along with Barry. Because of my ongoing work studying the rhetoric of peace and ways to de-escalate public discourse, along with a few others, we have re-started RHETORICIANS FOR PEACE II.
The 1930 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Jane Addams, was a rhetorical theorist, as is shown in her essays on the subject of public discourse, exploring “rhetorical listening and sympathetic knowledge” and the value of personal experience. The value of “knowing one another better” was—for Addams—essential for cooperation.
We are ALL rhetoricians and some of us have studied this field, written and published on the history and practices of rhetoric. Inflammatory rhetoric is designed to incite and divide, to install fear and hate. We are sharing together about how and when we are being manipulated. We are also upholding Jane Addams’s values about listening to each other and expanding our “circles of identification” (from Kenneth Burke) We hope that our website’s raising awareness of the processes of mass rhetoric’s appeals will help people to regain more autonomy. In particular, we intend to show ways to gain time and space to consider what we are confronted with (in media and in-person,) rather than being constantly agitated each day.
Now LIVE! "Rhetoricians for Peace II" on Facebook!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/994863016087952