The “Moral Authority” Canard

http://www.nationalreview.com/mccarthy/mccarthy200511280803.asp ^ | Andrew McCarthy

[mal]

In Rhetoric, Aristotle observed that personal character is often the most formidable weapon in the speaker's arsenal — more persuasive, if skillfully deployed, than even the logical force of his arguments.

Two-and-a-half millennia later, in a world of made-for-TV sound bites, techno-imagery, and information overload, the concept is hollowed out. Personal character has devolved into "moral authority," an attribute interred in the pantheon of the vapid when the anti-Aristotle herself, Maureen Dowd, divined it in Cindy Sheehan — a walking caricature whose hijinks after the combat death of her noble soldier son have become the pathetic emblem of the antiwar left.

Maybe that's as it should be. There has, after all, always been more flash than heft to the whole idea. For every Cindy Sheehan, there are countless parents of fallen heroes whose resonant pride in the mission, and demands that we fight on lest it be in vain, overwhelm her "moral authority" over our deliberations.

[Mad Dawg]

An interesting corollary is how/why it is that those on both sides (but I think more the left than the right) will rush as fast as they can to substitute a plausible "authority" for the results of reasoned enquiry.

How much of their "argument" comes down to: "Well what you say appears to make sense, but Cindy Sheehan and now -- look! -- Murtha and McCain agree with me. So there!

[norton]

Much as I loathe Cindy Sheehan, Murtha and McCain have been riding this idea a WHOLE lot longer than she.

[nothingnew]

go away

FMCDH(BITS)

[nothingnew]

Cleanup on aisle 2.

FMCDH(BITS)

[HawaiianGecko]

	Torture should not be outlawed period. The minute it becomes illegal is the minute the argument moves to 'what is torture.'  While legal, people will rightly complain about pulling fingernails off etc., but now the emphasis has moved to panties on heads, and I'm sure someday putting a prisoner behind bars will become tantamount to lopping off digits. McCarthy is right. McCain has good intentions but his energy needs to be focused on something that will actually help America rather than a presidential campaign.

 

 

[Graymatter]

For every Cindy Sheehan, there are countless parents of fallen heroes whose resonant pride in the mission, and demands that we fight on lest it be in vain, overwhelm her "moral authority" over our deliberations.

While we're correcting this fellow who makes a good living without our advice, let's regret this clumsy sentence, damn the committee that obviously built it, and lament the misapplication of the word "overwhelm."

Carry on!