Readings on the Rhetoric of Social Protest, 2nd ed.
(1975)
"This essay begins with a critical examination of one current theory for the rhetorical analysis of movements which arise form alienating social divisions...our purpose is not to deny the adequacy of current movement theory where it may be appropriately applied. However, complementary theory is necessary both to explain rhetorical phenomena current theory fail to illuminate, and to provide foundation for a general theory of rhetorical movements" (82).
"The primary task of the critic of rhetorical movements, therefore, is to analyze discourse generated in the conflict between a movement's advocates and the defenders of the established order" (82-83).
"Many groups in society call for change, yet they remain embedded in society is the flux of social change. But not all groups acting as agents of change constitute movements. Collective action is a rhetorical movement, Cathcart argued, only when it 'cannot be accommodated within the normal movement of the status quo" (83).
"Aggressor spokesmen, Cathcart suggested, will proclaim that the 'new order, the more perfect order, cannot come about through the established agencies of change.' Such proclamation forces defendant spokesmen to produce a 'counter-rhetoric that exposes the agitators as anarchists or devils of destruction.'...Aggressor spokemen initially intensify misunderstanding in society, calling attention to division. Simultaneously, they engage in a 'strategy designed to infuse the 'priests' of the existing order...with...attitudes that will impel them to the act of opposition...' As a result of the drama produced by conflict, the movement comes to public notice. Aggressors can then begin to 'convert the impious' and to provoke action. In the establishment-conflict theory, radical division defines the movement and gives rise to its strategies" (83).
A Theory of Innovational Movements
Both the establishment-conflict movement and innovational movement share "a goal of social change through group action which must fulfill rhetorical requirements by creating drama" (84).
"Both types of movements must use rhetoric to 'attract, maintain, and mold workers,' 'secure adoption of their product by the larger structure,' and 'react to to resistance generated by the larger structure'" (84). (Much of this can be mapped over how modern movements use Twitter to create rhetorical velocity).
In contrast to the establishment-conflict movement, the innovational movement "acts with the expectation that the changes it demands will not disturb the symbols and constraints of existing values or modify the social hierarchy...Either institutions, as changed, will allow individuals effectively to act out their values, or they will more vigorously reinforce belief in existing values" (84-85).
"The innovational movement cannot appear to be in conflict with the dominant groups in society, those which must be persuaded to approve the proposed innovation and to work for its general acceptance" (85).
"The innovation advocated by the movement must serve a recognized need. Most societies possess institutions which, more or less, satisfy their needs. Spokesmen for an innovational movement must demonstrate that the product of existing institutions is less, rather than more, satisfying. If not, the exigence creating a rhetorical situation will not be perceived. Consequently, advocates must criticize institutions and point to areas of critical failure" (85).
"Without the kind of drama that gives impetus to the establishment-conflict movement, the innovational movement, unwilling to engage other agents in conflict, must create a conflict between its purpose and some nonpersonal element in its scene" (85).
"In an establishment-conflict vision, reference is to real agents who hold power and how can therefore react by creating their own counter-rhetorical vision in which the aggressor spokesmen are depicted through devil terms. In an innovational movements' vision, the personae are impersonal scenic elements which can be condemned for eroding society's values. These elements are mute, for no spokesmen will arise to refute the condemnations" (86).
"a consistent and necessary pattern of usage is to be found only in innovational movements...an innovational movement must consistently deny conflict and moderate its criticisms of institutions. These two strategies necessarily energize a projection of purpose-scene conflict" (86).
SIGNIFICANCE OF THEORY FOR INNOVATIONAL MOVEMENTS
"the theory moves us closer to comprehension of how public communication functions in a nation undergoing change...economic development strains traditional values and hierarchies" (91).
In a post-industrial America of scarcity and pollution, innovational movements in ecology and consumerism will, in the long run, figure as important sources of public discourse" (91).
The authors recommend seeing movements as a continuum: on one end, the establishment-conflict approach; on the other the innovational approach. In the middle are movements" in which spokesmen for the oppressed demand an inversion of the social hierarchy" (91) for an oppressed group.
"Movements could be located on such a continuum and, significantly, their strategies might be predicted from that location" (92).
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