The Use of Rhetoric in the "Ginger Separatist Movement"

The beginning of Phaedrus begins with speeches on eros. But before Phaedrus recites the speech by Lysias, he asks Socrates if he believes in myths. Socrates responds by saying, "But I do not at all have leisure for these things; and the cause of it, my friend, is this. I am not yet able, according to the Delphic inscription, to know myself, it appears to me laughable indeed for one who is still ignorant of this to examine alien things." For Socrates, it is more important to know ones self and form a basis of truth from that before going on to examine things outside the self. However, a few lines earlier, he does express that he wouldn't be surprised if sophists didn't really believe in myths themselves but just used them to rhetorical ends (Phaedrus 229c).

Similarly, I liken the character Eric Cartman, from South Park, to be like a rhetorician that Socrates believes to be most the lowly. Cartman is known for employing "empty rhetoric"–that is–grand words and gestures to persuade the masses of people. In season 9, episode 11 of South Park, Cartman gives what could be considered a hate speech against ginger kids (children with red hair, pale skin and freckles). This speech persuades the kids in his class to alienate all the ginger kids and ban them from the cafeteria. In response, Stan and Kyle sneak into Cartman's room to dye his hair red, bleach his skin and paint on freckles to teach him a lesson. What they fail to realize is that this ultimately backfires. Cartman then reverses his rhetoric to begin "ginger separatist movement" akin to what happened with Hitler in Nazi Germany. He asserts that gingers are the chosen race and that they must rid the town of non-gingers.

You can watch the clip of Cartman's intitial speech here. (Please note the videos are linked because all they aren't legally available through YouTube)

In fact, I would not be surprised if the reason for rhetoric's bad rap comes from its unjust uses, which Socrates stated in Gorgias and Phaedrus as a concern about rhetoric. Socrates asserts that it is very easy for someone to use rhetoric to speak on subjects they are not necessarily knowledgeable about. We see this in the exchange between Socrates and Phaedrus.

Soc: So then, for things that are going to be well and beautifully said, must not the speaker's thought already exist, with knowledge of the truth about things that he is going to say?
Phae: About this matter, Socrates my friend, this is what I have heard: there is not a necessity for one who is going to be a rhetor to learn the things that are in reality just but the things that seem so to the multitude who will give judgment, nor the things that are really good or beautiful but that will seem so. For persuading comes from these, but not from the truth. 

In this section, Phaedrus asserts that a rhetor doesn't need to have a particular knowledge about something to talk about it or even persuade someone to his or her viewpoint. Socrates later mentions again that rhetoric has a tendency to skirt the truth if it does not serve the rhetor's ends. "For all in all, they say–what we also said toward the beginning of this argument–that he who is going to be competently rhetorical has no need to have a share of truth..." (Phaedrus 82, 272d). In his class presentation, Cartman claims that gingers have no souls. Obviously, this is a false statement, but his convincing speech and qausi knowledge of science is what helps him to convince everyone in his class (all but Stan and Kyle) that ginger kids should be shunned. Cartman's choice of words are historically based in western ideals. Something that has no soul is considered evil and this is intertwined with Christian ideology. One must have a soul to go to heaven and if the soul is linked with the divine, then the absence of a soul is linked with the demonic. Does your skin and hair color determine the absence or presence of a soul? No.

However, Cartman uses fear to his advantage by also linking ginger kids to Dracula, who is also considered to be evil. In western myth, Dracula can be defeated by crosses and a profound belief in God. Cartman plays on this dichotomy that we see often in Plato's writings. Good vs Evil. Just vs. Unjust. and so on.

Later on in the episode, Cartman contradicts himself when he develops "gingervitis" over night. Since he becomes that which he initially hated, he changes his stance. This goes back to what I mentioned earlier about Socrates supposing that rhetors may not necessarily believe the myths that they use in their speeches. To use rhetoric, you don't necessarily have to believe what your are trying to say. What matters is that you are convincing to your audience and if they are in the multitude, it is much easier to work them up into a frenzy. We see this towards the end of the episode when Cartman's rhetoric takes on a full blown Nazi-like feel. 

Thus, Socrates concerns are well founded because we see this demonstrated throughout human history. People who have the gift of speech use it for unjust means. This can be dangerous. Nazi Germany is the chief analogy that South Park uses, but we can also see where rhetoric wins over truth in incidents like the Salem Witch Trials. With this in mind, I think that Socrates uses the end of Phaedrus to further define how rhetoric can be used justly.

"Until someone knows the truth of each of the things that he speaks or writes about; and becomes able to define every thing in relation to the thing itself; and having defined it, knows how, next, to cut it in accordance with forms all the way to what is uncuttable; and, seeing clearly concerning the soul's nature in accordance with these same things, discovering the form that fits together with each nature, in this way sets down and orders the speech, giving speeches of many colors and embracing all harmonic modes to a many-colored soul and simple ones to a simple soul–before this he will not be able to handle with art the class of speeches, to the extent that it naturally admits of it, either for teaching something or for persuading something, as the whole earlier argument has disclosed to us," (Phaedrus 88, 277b).

What I take this passage to mean is that Socrates tries to explain how he thinks rhetoric should be used in the most just way. Before anyone can use rhetoric, he believes that one must speak the truth and be able to define a thing accurately. Once defined, they must know the ins and outs of the thing or topic so that they are better able to persuade a given audience. This is the heart, of what I think is, Socrates's version of rhetoric; and when we see examples like the one in South Park, it becomes easier to write off rhetoric as something empty and meaningly when that is not the case.