Rhetoric and the peacock. I remember the turning of the peacock’s wings in the arrival of the technology of communication, decision-makin g, and argument on the human scene to make sense of uncertainty. How will rhetoric assist democracy? Antiphon, who was born around 480 BCE, took up rhetoric as a profession in ancient Athens. There is a fragment about a peacock attributed to him that goes like this: “if your idea is to set the birds loose in Athens they will fly away. If on the other hand, you clip their wings, their beauty will be lost, since their beauty lies in their wings.” I remember the peacock as the techne of rhetoric and think of how the bird might stride through the barnyard assisting the work of democracy. Rhetoric is colorful (splendid with tropes), turning and opening its wings to show its propensity for diversity and for letting alternating views and contrasting colors of the world to show their stuff, though such power often makes stubborn sounds. Rhetoric, however, could be tamed and cut to make it manageable and useful and serviceable.

The fragment of the peacock is an invitation to rethink the forms of communication in democracy. Are we afraid of the peacock? Can we find delight in difference? My mission in “Haunted by a Peacock: Discovering, Testing, and Generating Rhetoric in Untimely Ways” was to explore the pressure of change and how it contributes in the making of an “imperfectly perfect”democracy.

Read my full article, Haunted by a Peacock: Discovering, Testing, and Generating Rhetoric in Untimely Ways