Power and Authority in Identifying Traits

One of things that struck me most about Plato's passage was the statement, "The followers of Zeus desire that the soul of him whom they love be like Zeus; so they seek for one of philosophical and lordly nature, and when they find him and love him, they do all they can to give him such a character" (152). The sense of identification through relating the lover to someone divine is reminiscent of how rhetoric is utilized in political campaigns. By creating discourse that evokes past presidents or those who have been admired before, the rhetor can further his ethos and cause. The nature of the human soul is to identify or to disidentify. For a rhetor to be successful it is important for the audience to respond to the speaker, applying traits to him or her that are seen in people they love and admire.

For feminist rhetoricians the process of disidentification, by the process of not identifying with a man they create a binary between the two genders within rhetoric. These binaries create tension between two sides of rhetoric, yet they work to clarify the rhetorical situation. In Plato's case by identifying with a divine being, or at least placing upon the rhetor traits of a divine being, immediately mirrors the metaphorical scene as well as cultural scene that Plato is living in. In order to understand these traits Plato suggests, "he who is to be a rhetorician must know the various forms of soul" (163). By examining traits the rhetor can properly communicate which ones the audience should subscribe onto him, yet this authority held within the audience reimagines the possibilities of speakers. In the modern sense it enables more opportunity for the audience members, potentially masses and minorities, rather than all the power coming from the speaker. As seen in any grassroots campaign, appealing to "common people" has swayed a lot of political elections. Plato declares it is important to, "acquire a proper knowledge of these classes and then be able to follow them accurately with his senses, when he sees them in the practical affairs of life" (163). Although he is talking about classes of speech, the people who get to utilize these practices of speech, those who declared them to be "proper" and a determinant of speech have again created a rhetorical sense of power.

Overall whether it is identifying based on similar traits within the divine or learning the inner workings of the soul, discourse is wrapped up in authority. Whomever has the power to decide what traits need to be perpetuated within speakers, especially now politically with who should run for president and what they should be saying, has the power to reimagine the rhetorical scene. That's an awful lot of power.