I’ve been starting to feel that the level of political discourse will sink so low by November 2004 that any enthusiasm for voting will be thoroughly drained from the voting populace. What if they gave an election and only the politicians cared about voting?
The “good” news is that there’s a great posting on Kuro5hin.org called “19th Century Guide to Dishonest Argument” describing an pointing to Arthur Schopenhauer’s The Art of Controversy, which delves into 38 categories of less-than-fair techniques of argument.
Might I suggest a new drinking game for the political season: drink a beer every time you recognize one of these techniques.
Anyway, a great homework text to study. Unfortunately, the intro to the post is becoming more true than any of us would want to accept: “In the public arena, rhetoric is more important than logic; sounding right is more important than being right.”