3.2. Agonal rhetoric

The rhetoric of persuasion has been neglected for many centuries. In totalitarian, authoritarian societies there was no need to persuade anyone, it was enough to order it. The resurgence of agonal rhetoric is associated with the United States. This country built its culture on different rhetorical foundations than in Europe.

Traditional rhetoric is built around two themes: “What to talk about” (content) and “How to talk” (methods). Agonal rhetoric is built as an adversarial communication around the goal statement “Why to speak”. Such rhetoric is instrumental in nature. It aims at managing behavior.

The travelling salesmen and preachers could expect success if they understood the laws of agonal communication. No one could order the purchase of unnecessary goods or change their religion for another. Such goals could only be achieved by influencing human consciousness through words. This direction was called New lively rhetoric. It was studied literally at every level of American education.

The emergence of mass communication media (cinema, radio, television) has meant that the common man finds himself entangled in endless strings of agonal statements. It is almost impossible for a person to resist or at least critically monitor them without knowing the basics of rhetoric.

In addition to the general conditions necessary for all communication (logos, pathos, ethos), agonal communication includes three additional conditions: psychological, logical and linguistic.

Psychological conditions are decisive. They can be formulated in the form of some theses:

1.“Never lie, never tell the truth, always say something”. This thesis is a real trap: the speaker cannot lie, because all lies are verifiable. Truth cannot be verified, it can be believed or not believed. One must always speak, otherwise there is no process of interaction. In addition, silence can be used for reflection by the one being influenced. The unused resources of language and the construction of new expressions based on them, which can provide a communicative event, help to escape this trap.

2.“Never formulate true communication objectives to the client”. Formulating the true objectives of an agonal statement destroys persuasiveness. If a salesman openly states that his goal is to sell a product, there may be no willing buyers. This attitude requires him to have a special type of discourse, in many ways similar to the utterance.

Speech techniques. A truism is an obvious, trivial statement, a well-known, hackneyed truth that is used to disguise certain instructions. Example, “People who bought this machine just can’t imagine how they lived without it before!”, “I’ve got one single pot left and I’m ready to sell it to you. I like you so much”. There are hundreds of such examples if you look at the advertisements or talk to a salesperson.

3.“The client is always right and knows everything”. The main task is to put the client before the need to make a choice and to ensure that he or she is “free” to make that choice. Agonal, adversarial communication is impossible without this important condition.

The technique of choosing without choosing is used. The person is given several options to choose from, each of which the salesperson is happy with. For example, “Do you want to pay in cash or by cheque?” or “Will you be able to apply what you have learned immediately or after a little training?”.

Technique right of choice. The salesperson adds another choice that they are not happy with, but say it in a dismissive tone. For example, “You can order over the phone or right now, or not at all”.

Addressing motives that exist in a person’s mind that they are not conscious of.

Psychologists have identified four types of unconscious motives that have been used successfully for advertising purposes. These are reparative, oceanic, indulgent and communicative.

22

Reparative motives implement a person’s desire to gain an advantage. A sales strategy through discounts, promotions, etc. is based on the use of these motives.

Oceanic motives focus on a person’s desire to change the world for the better. For example, “Buy this product and you are helping to save a tree or ...”.

Indulgent motives exploit a person’s need to escape from life’s unresolved problems, to forget themselves. For example, a cosmetics advertisement with a pathetic appeal: “buy it, you are worthy of it”.

Communicative motives fulfil a person’s need to find like-minded people and communicate with them. For example, an advertisement for beer with friends or an advertisement for kebabs in the countryside with the family.

There is another human characteristic that speakers actively use. A person hears not what he is told, but what he wants to hear. Not without reason, in ancient times, the best praise for an orator was for the listener to say: “You said what I already knew”. The man was thankful that someone had voiced his desires. Political speeches are built on this.

The agonal communicator’s task is to find out what the person wants and to tell him or her about it all the time. It is not necessary to ask the person what they care about in order to understand exactly what they care about. No matter what the people are talking about, they will always find an opportunity (unconsciously) to insert what they personally care about. An experienced speaker will consciously include words (topics) that attract attention in his or her speech.

One technique which often works is the praise technique, which tries to play on a person’s vanity. Expressions such as: “You are a man of outstanding merit”, “There is no question of your great erudition”, are used for this purpose.

The destruction of someone else’s stereotype, fighting for one’s client, is another task for the agonal communicator.

Logical rules of agonal rhetoric

An agonal statement is the opposite of a formal-logical statement.

A formal-logical statement can always be verified as true or false. Agonal statement simultaneously asserts itself as true and constructs a series of scenarios, where this truth appears visually. But by breaking the rules of formal logic, the particular case expands to the boundaries of the absolute. It is “an absolutely new model”, “an absolutely useful thing for everyone”.

Agonal rhetoric operates with paradoxes.

Traditional rhetoric relies on doxa (common utterances). On this rhetorical antonym, a distinction of language has emerged. There is language inherent in mass culture, propaganda. It is vague and imprecise, addressing assumptions that are built on ideology. The language used in agonal communication is sharply separate, paradoxical; it is based on thoughts. There is a special energy to it, which arises from the discontinuity of the systematic presentation.

Linguistic background. Agonal rhetoric views speech as a solution to an inventive problem. Whereas everyday speech, like ordinary tasks, uses algorithms, agonal communication, like

creative problem solving, requires awareness of a non-trivial non-standard situation. Ordinary thinking, stereotypical: without being instructed to go beyond ordinary ideas, it does not allow a person to solve non-typical tasks. Despite their diversity, most tasks of this kind are based either on a hidden condition, or on the need for an additional condition, or on the need for a name change. The agonal communicator usually looks for additional conditions under which the task he or she has set can be solved.

23

3.3. Types of speech and emotion influence

Influence is an action that everyone experiences throughout their lives. And everyone learns from childhood how to resist influence. Not surprisingly, the arsenal of means of influencing and resisting influence is quite impressive.

Influence is the process and result of one person changing the behavior of another person (the object of influence), his or her attitudes, intentions, perceptions and evaluations. Such changes occur in the process of interaction of people.

It is accepted to distinguish between two large groups: verbal and emotional.

Verbal influence is characterised by awareness. This type of influence may be overt or covert. Conscious, open speech influence has different forms, each of which differs in the degree of

argumentation.

Persuasion — high degree of argumentation. Inducement — low degree of argumentation.

In between are: self-promotion, destructive criticism, coercion, request. Conscious, covert speech influence is manipulation.

Let us briefly describe each type of influence.

Persuasion: consciously reasoned influence on a person (group) in order to change a person’s views, opinion, intention, decision, attitude, judgement. It is the most common and accepted type of influence. However, its possibilities are limited.

Self-promotion: declaring one’s goals and presenting one’s competence and qualifications in order to have an advantage in a situation of choice.

Inducement: deliberate unreasoned influence on a person (group) in order to change their condition, attitude or predisposition to certain actions.

Request: an appeal to a person to satisfy the needs or desires of the initiator of the influence. Coercion: threatening to use the initiator’s controlling power in order to get the recipient to behave

as desired (deprivation of benefits, a change in living or working conditions).

Destructive criticism: the expression of derogatory or insulting judgments about a person, rude condemnation, ridiculing his or her deeds and actions. A person in this situation seeks to “save face”, it diverts his strength to fight the emerging negative emotions, takes away his faith in himself.

Manipulation: a covert inducement of the addressee to experience certain states, to make decisions, to perform actions necessary for the initiator to achieve his own actions.

Manipulation and manipulative tricks are used very widely. Virtually all people use manipulative tricks, although not everyone is aware of it.

Types of emotion influence

There are few types of emotional influence, but they are very effective. The use of emotional influence is usually involuntary. Professionally, the techniques of emotional influence are mastered by actors, achieving a non-arbitrary effect, as arbitrariness is perceived as insincerity and is immediately rejected. Emotional influence is the main characteristic of a charismatic leader.

Contagion: the transmission of one’s state (consciously or unconsciously) to another person (group) who adopts that state or attitude (emotional states are transmitted).

Imitation impulse: the ability to induce a desire to be similar. Copying someone else’s behaviour and thought patterns can be both voluntary and involuntary.

Favourshaping: attracting attention to oneself by displaying one’s own awesomeness, attractiveness, making favourable judgments about the person being favoured, and doing favours for him or her.

A person rarely uses only one type of influence. As a rule, verbal influences, such as the development of persuasion, go hand in hand with emotional influences. They complement each other.

24

Influencing and resisting influencing

There are no universal techniques for resisting influence. A person rarely uses only one type of influence. All speech influences are enhanced by emotional colouring. Therefore, counteracting influence must also be extended.

The best ratio of types of influencing and counteracting influencing is presented in the Tabl. 4.

Table 4

People with power can use different strategies of influence and tactics. The effectiveness of the strategies varies.

Influencing strategies

Each strategy has its strengths and weaknesses. Six general strategies are commonly identified. A strategy of using power directly depends on the type of organisational culture and dominant management style. Power of position is most obvious in the military: higher ranks give orders to lower ranks. In organisations, position power empowers the leader to design and enforce rules and

procedures that subordinates must follow.

Preventive strategies (behind-the-scenes lobbying and informal deals): influencing others by preventing certain actions. A feature of these strategies is that they are hidden from people. For example, a leader schedules a meeting that his opponent will not be able to attend. Withholding information is also a preventive strategy.

The use of preventive strategies can cause serious harm:

–the balance of power and influence is disturbed;

–the climate of communication deteriorates;

–trust and openness disappear;

–destructive conflicts emerge;

–performance is reduced.

25

A nudge strategy (the “stick” strategy): a strategy of coercion, the use of various disciplinary measures, up to and including dismissal. The effectiveness of this strategy is not long-lasting: people may harbour grievances that are bound to manifest themselves in situations where there is a lack of supervision. Use of this strategy increases latent forms of insubordination, leads to open forms of conflict, and decreases work efficiency and organisational commitment. The work atmosphere becomes tense, distrustful, motivation worsens, etc.

Baiting strategy (carrot strategy): the use of rewards, along the lines of: “I will give you this if you do this”. Material rewards are effective in the short term. Once a reward is received, the individual tends to think the exchange is complete, so the manager has to keep increasing the reward, which sooner or later will exceed the manager’s capacity. Forms of baiting can be moral rewards: recognition, respect, inclusion in one’s group of people, friendship, fame, etc. The value of moral rewards is also short-lived and may generate envy and resentment among those who, for whatever reason, find themselves deprived of them.

Preparatory strategies aim to create something that can be useful in the future, such as a good relationship. It is not so much about influencing as it is about preparing for later influencing. Creating and maintaining a positive image of the organisation is important. A range of public relations activities is used to do this:

–newsletters, publication of annual reports, working with the press;

–building coalitions, building friendships, providing assistance, showing friendliness, etc. Among the various methods of influencing, in addition to force and reason, there is also seduction,

which a person unknowingly resorts to in situations that are important to him or her.

Seduction and persuasion strategies. Usually, these strategies are used as one, but they can also be used separately.

Seduction strategies are used (sometimes unconsciously) in situations that are important to them. The basic techniques of seduction include presentation and ceremonial techniques. Presentation techniques help manage space. Any important meeting requires the thought and

special arrangement of the place where it will take place. The choice of a table for a meeting or a friendly dinner, the positioning of participants has a significant impact on the effectiveness of interaction in the negotiation process.

Ceremonial techniques also help to manage time. У. Williams wrote: “...there is one thing that each of us has in absolutely equal quantities. It is time”. But why, if everyone has the same amount of time, do the results differ so much from one person to another? When planning work (meetings, conversations, negotiations, etc.) an experienced leader works with two categories of time — hourly and event-based — because he or she knows that there is a difference in the time in which a person will work. The ability to plan an event, fitting it into the appropriate hourly time, is a constant companion of one’s ability to manage others.

Influencing tactics

In addition to strategies, managers successfully use various influence tactics (Tabl. 5).

26

Table 5

Summary

1.Rhetoric as the art of eloquence and the art of persuasion has been around for over two and a half millennia.

2.A rhetorical text has three components: logos, pathos and ethos. Logos and pathos have remained unchanged since the time of Aristotle.

3.There are different kinds of persuasion: informing and explaining, proving and refuting, arguing. Persuasion as a type of influence has a number of limitations.

4.Agonal (adversarial) rhetoric includes three additional conditions: psychological, logical and linguistic.

5.Influence is not always leadership and not always power. Influence is more than leadership or power. There is no leadership without influence, just as there is no power without influence.

6.Verbal and emotional types of influence are interrelated; they complement and reinforce each other.

7.There is no single universal way to counteract influence, but it is possible to use combined techniques. Influencing strategies and tactics are varied. The choice of influence strategy is determined by the context of the situation.

Think about and answer these questions

1.Which components of a rhetorical text have remained unchanged since Aristotle’s time? What do we think can explain this?

2.What type of persuasion do you use most often? What kind of persuasion would you like to master?

27