Post for week of September 16th & 18th

The Charland article addresses constitutive rhetoric and how it plays a part in motivating people to action. Charland identifies three things that constitutive rhetoric does:
1. Develops a collective identity. This draws people together and allows them to unify under one cause.
2. Creates the subject or audience member as a subject in history. This has people see the movement as an important part of society and that they are making an imperative change.
3. Demands that subject/audience members act in accordance with the movement.

When I read this article, I immediately related it to the Obama “Change/Hope” movement
that he has created with his campaign for President. If you look at the campaign as compared to the Charland article, Obama is the master of constitutive rhetoric. He has constructed his followers as he would like them to appear and designated ideas that he finds important and convinces the public to accept and care about them. He identifies ‘today’ as being the time for change and a turning point in history and has convinced a stereotypically apathetic group (young adults) to come out and vote. The followers generally have accepted this and have created a movement that is tremendously powerful. Obama and his movement are challenging the powers that be and refused to go unacknowledged.
I found this article particularly important in my own life because it forces me to further question authorities who I even tend to agree with and to see if there is substantive evidence to back up what these powerful leaders are saying or to see if it is all a façade.