Anthony Kaldellis: commitment

Transcript context

…It’s the rhetoric actually has a lot of power- … because it is a uniting idea- … an ideal that propagates through time, and it pacifies you. It makes you, it puts you at peace. Rhetoric is important. I’ll give you an example. As an academic administrator, right? I mean, I was chair of department for years and years. There’s a difference between a dean who says, “Sorry, bad budget situation. We’re just gonna have to cut your programs,” on the one hand, and a dean who says, “I am fully on board with what you’re trying to accomplish with these programs. I am a defender of the humanities. Unfortunately, we have this budget situation, and we’re gonna have to cut some of the programs. But I assure you, the moment I’m in this with you together- … the moment we find the funds, we will restore them. ” Those two just rhetorical strategies, they’re aiming at the same practical outcome, will produce very different levels of compliance- … right, and consensus. And I should say that there’s subtlety there. The best rhetoric in that context, and maybe in the East Roman Empire, is you also have to believe it.…

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