User:Oceanflynn/Thank You for Arguing

Thank You for Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson Can Teach Us About the Art of Persuasion is a book by Jay Heinrichs' in which he explores the 3000-year old art of persuasion using examples from Star Wars, Leave it to Beaver, Stalin, Dick Cheney, Indiana Jones, Aristotle, Lincoln and Homer Simpson.

Chewbacca defense
The Chewbacca defense refers to "sneaking into the lexicon" and is another name for the red herring fallacy.

Cheney

 * "Cheney's aggressive dance on cruel and inhumane treatment of suspected terrorists, for example, gave Bush some breathing room on the Iraq war"

Control the tense
"Heinrichs describes, in "Control the Tense," Aristotle's favorite type of rhetoric, the deliberative, pragmatic argument that, rather than bogging down on past offenses, promises a future payoff, e.g., a victim of office backstabbing can refocus the issues on future choices: "How is blaming me going to help us get the next contract?" To illustrate "Control the mood," Heinrichs relates Daniel Webster's successful rhetorical flourish in a murder case: he narrated the horrific murder by following Cicero's dictum that when one argue emotionally, one should speak simply and show great self-control."

Gain the high ground
"Thomas Jefferson illustrates Heinrichs's dictum "Gain the high ground"; keenly aware of an audience's common beliefs and values, Jefferson used a rhetorical commonplace (all people are created equal) to launch the Declaration of Independence."