Friedman's heating and lighting

I was first introduced to Thomas Friedman when my children were small and I attended a board of education meeting for our school district. Our superintendent was talking about the age of globalization and competition, about how the world would be different for our children than it was for us. I tracked down a copy of the World is Flat and appreciated the insights of this author and his message. A couple of years ago my daughter had to read the book for a college class and she too was impressed with the message. Friedman's latest book, Thank You for Being Late, has also captured my attention. His clear and easy writing style explains why he is a successful journalist. Although not far into the book, I have been ruminating on one of the messages of the introduction- he talks about  the role of the opinion writer as being either heating or lighting, an analogy that I think would be good for talking to students about persuasive and argumentative writing.ads

He proposes that you have two options "turn on a lightbulb in your reader's head- illuminate an issue in a way that will inspire them to look at it anew- or stoke an emotion in your reader's heart that prompts them to feel or act more intensely or differently about an issue" (p. 12). This is the classic logos or pathos issue that Plato described updated to today's language. Friedman argues that ideally an author does both. Friedman's writing style does just that- he bombards the reader with facts designed to showcase certain things and then expresses it in a way that shares why you should care- your heart gets engaged. Friedman tends to be more of an economist than a politician in his outlook. I believe Friedman would agree with Marx in stating that the world is driven by economics rather than by political or social goals. Yes they are intertwined, but the driving force is the economic one.

When I think about our president and his use of rhetoric, it all focuses on the pathos or heating piece of the puzzle with some appeal to the element that Friedman does not discuss, ethos- appeal to authority. Trump uses his role as a businessman and now President to claim he must be right, an argument that Cigna, an insurance provider, takes comic advantage of with it's TV doctors of America ads (see here and here). Trump's favorite bit of rhetoric, however, is the heating business. He wants people shouting, cheering and afraid so that he can manipulate them to support him. We need to teach our young people to be wary of these devices so that they can analyze for themselves the information they receive and make informed decisions, not scared decisions.