Dialectic and Rhetoric - The Real Reason the Middle Class Is Shrinking

[Daktoria]

Following is a quote someone made to me recently about the matter of dialectic and rhetoric in debate (if you Google it, you'll find out where it's from):

Are you suggesting that since manners are culturallly determined, it's important to be unmannerly, since somehow that will make you independent of culture?

When people debate, they have limited attention spans. This means cultured manners are vital to successful persuasion. Overanalyzing logic does not make things easier for an audience to understand or appreciate.

However, the middle class is not the most cultured within society. The cultured are the upper class, and in turn, it can persuade the working class with appeals to emotion, popularity, misery, absurdity, and word games most effectively. To be uncultured is to be recognized as unmannerly, so in turn, the middle class loses debates.

This leads to what I call the "Country Club Effect". If upper class people are trying to make their country club more exclusive (because they're spoiled brats and looking for novelties to entertain them), they make it more difficult to join. Whether it's through social policy, fiscal policy, or foreign policy doesn't matter. One way or another, the upper class inhibits social mobility on purpose by employing rhetoric, not dialectic, in debates. Logical dialectic is boring, and it suggests boring character. Cultural rhetoric is exciting, so it suggests exciting character.

Unfortunately, social status must be afforded logically through sustainable means of production, so as long as cultural discussion overshadows logical discussion, the logic required for a sustainable middle class will fade away.

In order for the middle class to be resurrected, the foundational character of debate must change from rhetoric to dialectic. It must change from cultural language to logical language. That way, people can personally invest the time, energy, and attention to logically cultivate culture and manners in the first place instead of consuming unsustainable word games with what's already cultivated.

 

[waltky]

What the middle class is worried about...

Poll: US Middle Class Worried About Money, Leadership
April 25, 2013 - A new opinion poll shows middle-class Americans are deeply worried about finances, critical of political and business leaders, and frustrated by the high cost of college.

Thursday's report from the Heartland Monitor Poll says nearly half of Americans consider themselves middle class, which they define as having financial security and holding a steady job. But a majority of respondents say they are worried a serious medical problem or job loss could push them out of the middle class. Speaking at a seminar on middle class concerns, the head of the Northern Virginia Community College said the key to a secure job with a middle class salary is higher educaiton.

But Robert Templin also said millions of U.S. jobs are going unfilled at a time of high unemployment because too few people have the math, science, and computer skills employers need. According to Templin, by 2018 more than six out of 10 jobs will require post-secondary education. He added the United States is cutting investments in higher education just as the need for it is growing. "America is disinvesting in higher education, pushing the financial burden for college-going from taxpayers to individuals. Higher education now is not seen as a public benefit; it is seen as a private good," he said. "And we expect families to pay the bill themselves."

Reduced education aid is particularly hard on minority groups who need education to overcome the effects of poverty and language barriers, Templin said. The poll was conducted on behalf of the National Journal magazine and the Allstate insurance company. The data comes from a phone survey of 1,000 adults and has a margin of error just more than three percent.

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