Words are powerful!

Have you ever thought about the super power that words might have?

I mean every word can express love, hate, it can hurt, persuade and more… But why do they influence or interpret our thoughts?

The book “L’Italiano e’ bello” by Mariangela Galatea Vaglio can be taken as an example in  the explanation of the word rhetoric which obviously paid my attention.

She describes the rhetoric as “…tecnica per parlare efficace, ovvero del saper costruire frasi adatte a colpire il genere di pubblico che interessa.” (Technique to talk efficiently, as to know how to construct sentences capable to move the kind of audience we are talking to.). The style used during a conversation is adapted to the kind of audience, she means that if the audience is graceful then the style will be mawkish or if the audience is uncivilized then the style will be direct and vulgar, and so on. It is a technique where all the instruments are used to get to a specific purpose.

So if we think for example of all our politicians, we can notice their use of a good rhetoric with the only purpose to seduce us, using the right words, to get our votes, without forgetting to mention the fact that they practically have people who write speeches for them. Incredible uh? Of course, we know all that, but what we might never know is if they are manipulative or not, because the words they use are positive and good and they make us think that everything is possible and that change can happen. But then again on the other side nothing improves so it makes it difficult for us to believe in them. But should we always think in this way?

It’s obvious and goes without saying  that if the words are used in a sincere and good way, it is a great pleasure hearing them…

Where does it come from? The rhetoric has been invented by the Greeks, for who might not know, but the Romans used it first to let the world work as it had to. To have a good rhetoric the Romans distinguished: inventio, dispositio, memoria, elocutio and actio phases (all are in latin). Memoria and actio represent the moment where the speech has to be presented to the audience: they study the technique to memorize it and the way to pronounce it; but the most important phases are inventio because it is like a brainstorming: the act to write a draft; dispositio like doing an outline or a schedule which you try to convince the audience with and the elocutio, the act to choose the best and final result, the way to say the sentences in the best way, how to write them in order to have a nice speech.

What a work eh? So if you want to manipulate, now you have the means to do so!!Jokes aside, keep in mind that a good rhetoric is someone who is well educated, who reads a lot and learns how to speak in a good way, without the need to be manipulative.

How often do you have a good rhetoric and what is your purpose in using it?