Rhetoric

I have written for years about heartbreaking issues of war and atrocity and the shortfall between international rhetoric and action. I’ve often struggled with the apparent mismatch between the horror of what’s going on and people’s blithe ignorance of it. But knowledge isn’t everything […]

How much we should blame extreme political rhetoric for the actions of Anders Breivik? Did words help pull the trigger so many times? Is it accurate to describe him as a lone madman, existing outside Norway’s civilized society? What of Glen Beck who likened Breivik’s victims at a political summer camp to the Hitler Youth? […]

Why is Jerry Brown, a well-known national figure, taking a job as a mayor of a mid-sized city? Brown was recently sworn in as chief executive of Oakland, California. He says national politics in America has bottomed out. He argues that it’s in cities like Oakland that America’s democracy can be revived and solutions can […]

Back in March Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords made a statement responding to Sarah Palin’s anti-healthcare reform campaign, saying, “we’re on Sarah Palin’s targeted list. But the thing is the way that she has it depicted has the cross hairs of a gun site over our district.” Could metaphors in that statement have had an effect on […]