About a week ago, I was discussing my education with one of those people who is convinced that the only way to survive in the world today is with a business degree and enough capital to get yourself off the ground. I was annoyed at the response and kept thinking that I needed to vent my frustration on my blog. But I hadn’t done so yet. Then, after receiving the same email from two friends, I realized that I had found a means of adequately displaying the true power of language and the importance of rhetoric and technology in the world today. I hope you enjoy the pictures and video, but don’t forget to read the rest of the blog!

So about now you’re thinking that these are all just badly worded pictures, right? And at about the same time, some small businesses around the country are blushing at their bad word choice, right?

Now, obviously, it wouldn’t take a rocket scientist to realize the humor that emerges from the irony in these pictures. Anybody can do this. Take Emmalene, for example. She has done an excellent job of proving to us that the art of rhetoric is nurtured as early as high school. How so? Watch the video and see for yourself.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ds5y28gZWcU]

So if a high schooler can analyze language well enough to do this video, what does that say about the rest of the world? Sure, you have to have internet access, but the wave of the future (and today) is the internet. Don’t believe me? Take a look at “The Machine is Us/ing Us” and its subsequent popularity:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE]

The video itself is a simplified explanation of Web 2.0. But as the video points out, Web 2.0 is our future. So lets rethink this idea that the only degree that should be considered is in Business. How many business courses teach Aristotle’s Rhetoric? How many teach the fine art of persuasion in multiple forms? While I have no problem with business degrees, they can never completely cover those things that all the other departments cover within their degree. I would wager that if the man with whom I was conversing the other day were to begin advertising for his business via a webpage, he would consult an advertising agency (who utilize the same concepts we rhetoricians use) so that he would not end up with the same problem as those pictured above. While I will not deny that capital is a wonderful tool to have when entering the “real world,” I hold true to the view that there is nothing in the world as powerful as language. Language, my friends, can be manipulated with the proper rhetoric to get a point across in a more effective way. So to my “business oriented” acquaintance, I hope that should you fail to realize the inherent power of words that your business would create an advertisement that ends up in my mailbox one day. Keep in mind that I’m starting my own collection of rhetorical bloopers in advertising.