Reinhold Niebuhr's Ethics of Rhetoric Joseph E
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Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 2012 Reinhold Niebuhr's ethics of rhetoric Joseph E. Rhodes Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations Part of the Communication Commons Recommended Citation Rhodes, Joseph E., "Reinhold Niebuhr's ethics of rhetoric" (2012). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 2951. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/2951 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please [email protected]. REINHOLD NIEBUHR’S ETHICS OF RHETORIC A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of Communication Studies by Joseph E. Rhodes B.A., University of Alabama, 2006 M.A., Eastern Michigan University, 2008 May 2012 Acknowledgements This dissertation is the product of many, many supportive individuals who invested their priceless resources—whether financial, emotional or temporal—into my project of Becoming. It is true what they say, that the better part of one’s life consists of his friendships, and perhaps the most important of these friendships began four years ago, when I arrived at Louisiana State University. I will be eternally grateful for Dr. Nathan Crick’s guidance and care. The compliments and gratitude Nathan receives from his students are extensive. He is in his office, door open to all comers, for a ridiculous amount of time each week. He responds to emails instantaneously. His feedback on student work is extensive, critical, and unmatched in timeliness. What makes Nathan special is his understanding of friendship and education. His friendship is one Plutarch would have welcomed—“I don't need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better.” Thank you Nathan, for teaching me true friendship: it is caring enough about someone that you are willing to criticize them in love and truth. Secondly, Nathan embodies the thoughts of his scholastic muse, John Dewey, who said that “Education is a social process; education is growth; education is not preparation for life but is life itself.” Thank you Nathan, for teaching me that the only end education is a means to, is the end we call the “Good.” I will do my best to continue searching for it in a way that will make you proud. “Arriving at one goal is the starting point to another” and thus, I look forward to accomplishing many more goals in this life with your support and friendship. So as your friend I now say to you, borrowing the words of Sitting Bull, “let us put our heads together and see what life we will make for our children.” ii Few people are capable of demonstrating the love of Christ, the ironic humility of Socrates or an Aeschylian appreciation of life’s dramas; even fewer are capable of doing all three. Yet Dr. Cecil Eubanks does. One could do no better as an educator, perhaps as a human being, than to ask, “What would Dr. Eubanks do?” and then act accordingly. Thank you for showing me the path to humility, mindfulness, and wisdom beyond knowledge. Nothing I could write here can account for Dr. Andy King’s influence on the students at Louisiana State University. He is a man of many voices and personas, one who walks into a room and lights it up with joy and happiness. What is left when he leaves such a room is an aesthetic rhetorical history that is truly “dramatistic.” He carries on the oral tradition in our literate age and I thank you, Dr. King, for teaching me that I should never be ashamed to wear a finely accented pocket-square or to take a lecture off its planned course, in order to approach the truth from a roundabout direction. Thanks to Dr. John McDermott at Texas A&M University for telling me a beautiful “Niebuhr story” and for an excellent week in College Station with Dr. Crick and TAMU faculty. Niebuhr was right: Areopagetica may be the most important book ever written; and you were right as well: That’s not Dewey at all. I owe much to the Communication Studies faculty and graduate students at Louisiana State University. Thanks: to Dr. Graham Bodie, for his long conversations on faith and science, for holding me to a higher standard, and for humbling me—without lording it over me—precisely when I needed it most. I’ll never think poorly of Auburn graduates again; to Dr. Ruth Bowman for her warm hugs and cozy home on lonely Thanksgiving Days; to Dr. Michael Bowman for training my Scotch palate and pointing me toward the Pilot V.5 iii Black pen; and to Dr. Suchy, Dr. Pecchioni, Dr. Edwards, and Dr. Stephenson-Shaffer, for all the advice, knowledge and readily available smiles. I cannot imagine having finished this dissertation without the conversations and adult beverages had with friends at LSU. Dr. Rya Butterfield showed me how to take one’s own life by the reigns and in so doing, showed me that I had highly underestimated the power of the Will. You will always be my academic sister and a dear friend. Thank you for showing me forgiveness, patience, and strength of character. Dr. Ryan McGeough’s sage advice and wisdom beyond his years kept me from giving up on graduate school after my first semester; thank you for encouraging me to keep up the good fight and for letting me choose UNC when we played NCAA Football—D-line was gross. Mike Rold would give you the shirt off of his back if you needed something to dry a wet-dog off with; thanks for not dragging me out of a house and yelling at me in front of the neighbors—your dark place will forever remain a place of joy in my heart. Raquel Polanco saw me through the dissertation and kept me sane. Thanks for keeping me up at night in startling fits of laughter with stories about what makes you cry; I’m looking forward to hearing what they will say about us next. Dr. Danielle McGeough prepared me for the job search and made the past few months on the job market bearable; thanks for blazing that trail and sharing your experiences so freely and honestly. Dr. Travis Brisini is a true friend, scholar and gentleman. Kellie St. Cyr-Brisini welcomed me to Baton Rouge and made me feel at home immediately. Jade Huell loved me in spite of blue walls and talk-back tears. Liz Larrimore ate butter packets and rubbed Tabasco sauce in my eyes and as Daniel Tosh says, “for that, we thank you.” Ben Haas almost burnt a flag but didn’t, and I’m glad for both; thanks for teaching me my first lesson about solidarity and mounted police. This dissertation was touched in some iv way by all of you. I look forward to continuing our friendship for many years. Thank you, sincerely and from the bottom of my heart. Finally, I wish to thank those most responsible for this dissertation’s completion: my family and loved ones. I’ve been blessed with loving parents who put my graduate studies above everything else: Bob Rhodes and Gail Shelton; and I’ve been blessed with loving step- parents who have treated me like their own and gave me all the love and support a son could as for: Sue Rhodes and Dennis Shelton. The debt I owe each of you is insurmountable. Thank you for telling me that I make you proud, that I could do it when I didn’t think I could, and that it was okay to fail. You’ve given me all I could ask for in life. Finally, I want to thank Rachel Eleanor Frost. You are truly my best friend. Thanks for being patient, forgiving, understanding, loving and, most of all, for being an eater. I could not have finished this thing without your constant support of peanut-butter jelly sandwiches, yogurt trips, and joyful laughter. I hope I can return the favor as you embark on your own personal adventure and I can’t wait to see what the future has in store for you. I love you very much and I’m excited about making the next leg of life’s trip hand-in-hand. John Dewey writes, “To find out what one is fitted to do, and to secure an opportunity to do it, is the key to happiness.” I have to agree. I’m the happiest I’ve ever been in my life. It is only because of my friends and colleagues that I discovered this path to joy and thrived on this challenging, amazing journey. I wish you all the same happiness in your own projects of Becoming. v Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................................................ii ABSTRACT................................................................................................................................................................viii INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................................................................1 CHAPTER 1: THE ONSLAUGHT OF MODERNITY.....................................................................................20 FORD’S DETROIT AND WILSON’S WAR (1915-1919).............................................................21 THE MAKING OF A PROPHET (1920-1927) ................................................................................34 THE RISE OF THE EXPERT, ECLIPSE OF THE PUBLIC, AND THE ONSLAUGHT OF MODERNITY (1927-1932) ..................................................................................................................40