I saw some footage from Tuesday night's Douglas County School district board of directors meeting, during which there was a lot of shouting and red faces and outrage.
Just your typical school board meeting.
But what I was reminded of was how much WATCHING people lose it can be so funny. This phenomenon requires the amused observer to be the third party in the argument, so to speak. The two people who become increasingly upset, angry, even incoherent, are not thinking they are fun to watch, of course. They may eventually laugh at how out of control they got and the point is that the two in the "fight" are quite serious.
The observers (people like me, watching through the TV) have the luxury of not being out of control. This is the essence of the Jerry Springer Show.
These are arguments, but the shouting matches do not resemble the sorts of arguments we try to develop in a course like Composing Arguments. An argument that is nothing more than pathos (or an appeal to emotions), with an unhealthy mix of name-calling (ethos), rarely solves anything for long.
At some point facts and logic need to be brought in.
No comments:
Post a Comment