Arguments are interesting. They come in many shapes, sizes, and forms. From political debates about big issues to arguments about sports with friends and arguments with significant others about various things, and everything in between. Either way, most of them focus on who is right and who is wrong. We always try to be right and view ourselves as right, well we should anyways.
In Finding the Good Argument, OR Why Bother With Logic by Rebecca Jones, she says, “If we follow the war metaphor along its path, we come across other notions such as, ‘all’s fair in love and war’.” This is a good way to look at arguments as they tend to be fought as so called wars. The term “war” is used as one side wins and the other loses. Jones says this can lead to “arguments that result in propaganda, spin, and, dirty politics.” Throughout history politicians have used propaganda to get what they want. For example when the U.S. entered World War I they put up posters of Uncle Sam saying, “I want YOU for U.S. army”. This was meant to propel people into action and join the army. They needed soldiers and even though there was a huge chance that you will get killed, the poster helped around 5 million people enlist. It’s funny because type of argument actually had to do with war itself. It was the idea that if you didn't join the war you were doing something wrong, you weren’t defending the country's freedom.
In modern day times arguments are still fought as a metaphorical battlefield. For example in modern day politics politicians attempt to belittle their opposition in as many ways as they can. They tend to digress on the issue at hand and focus on attacking the opponent. The biggest perpetrator of that today is Donald Trump, as we all know. He attacked Hillary Clinton on countless occasions during their campaign in an effort to make her look bad. This is very common in today's world.
In terms of a solution, I’m not entirely sure how we could fix this issue. I could just sit here and tell everyone to attempt to make arguments constructive rather than attacking each other, but who am I to tell people that? We need to be more ethical in our arguments and think more about the facts presented. I will take it upon myself to do this in my own arguments and try to instill this idea on others, it’s about the best I can do.
personally, i think the idea of an argument being a war isnt a bad thing people just take it too far. and i also think there is a solution to this issue , jones stated in her article we should see an argument as a collaboration and there should be a common ground whereby the loser accepts they lost and move on.
ReplyDeleteI like how you used the example of the propaganda poster from World War I. I think that it's funny how effective this poster was at getting people to join, even thought many knew that joining the army during this time was a death wish. I also used the example of the way
ReplyDeleteDonald Trump spoke about Hilary Clinton in my blog and think that it is a perfect example of how news and media outlets are slowly becoming less reliable because they continue to show "fake news." I do however think that over time laws can and will be emplaced that make illegal for news sources to show and produce fake news on a large scale.
Adding on to what alex said about the uncle sam image, propaganda, especially war propaganda is very interesting to analyze the arguments they make. Some inspire patriotism like the one you put in the post, while others demonize the enemy.
ReplyDeleteLike you, I chose this problem for my blog, and I agree that there isn't a good "solution" to it. If we tried to make a law that forced people to follow the best practices of argument, it kind of defeats the purpose of having arguments (not to mention the constitutionality of such a law).
Arguments nowadays get so personal, and I can really relate to what your saying about politicians getting absorbed into the weak points of their opponents. political arguments shouldn't be about pulling up dirt on each other, but should be about the topics at hand and the concepts that are being debated.
ReplyDeleteJones believes that more education on argumentation, its structure, and the rules of ethical argument will help people engage more reasonably. That's one of the reasons I include this article. I think her goals are valuable. On the other hand, I don't know if this is effective. I hope that my students come out of the class more respectful of others' opinions. You can let me know if you do.
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