One of the topics I cover in Philosophy 101 with my students is Sophism.
The Sophists were a group of people in ancient Greece (before even Socrates, Plato and Aristotle) who worked to perfect the art of persuasive speaking. They were itinerant speakers, traveling around giving speeches. Before mass media like the internet, television or newspapers, you could have a strong, effective speaker take your message around to influence the crowds. Many of them were “mouths for hire,” you might say.
They were largely effective, and created a template for professions where persuasive speaking was an asset, such as lawyers and politicians.
Socrates (according to his student Plato) was not a fan of the Sophists. He felt that being able to convince people to believe something was not nearly as valuable as actual philosophy which invited people to think for themselves. What’s the value in being able to win an argument if nobody is actually learning anything?
In the internet/social media age, this approach has essentially taken over. Many people have demonstrated that they simply wish to pick and support a side on a topic rather than wrestle with it themselves. Thinking for yourself is difficult. You constantly encounter new topics and find new information and perspectives you have to consider. The lazy approach means you just need to find someone who you decide to agree with. Whether that’s a particular politician, tik tok personality or preacher; it frees you from having to give thought and consideration yourself.
And these modern day sophists are more than willing to tell you what to think, so that they can control you and monetize you for their own benefit.
This is unsurprising when it comes to politicians and media personalities, but it’s incredibly disheartening in churches and faith communities. Yet, in studying modern Christianity, author Andrew Root found that most megachurch pastors are communicators who say “simple things in interesting ways.”
I worked for several years at a church with a pastor who had the reputation of being a great preacher. Indeed, when I first arrived, I quickly saw that he was one of the most naturally skilled communicators I’d known. Sadly, over the years, I watched his laziness cause him to stop using his gifts to make any kind of useful impact, but rather he just started relying on lazy cliches and political positioning. Most people didn’t notice, because they liked his funny stories.
When I was at that church, he told me that my communicating invited people to take hold of ideas and wrestle with them, but that I needed to put those ideas “in their lap.” Meaning, instead of inviting people to think for themselves and wrestle with ideas and mysteries, I needed to just tell them what to think. It’s the antithesis of who I am, but he’s right that the only way to be an effective sophist is to make sure everyone agrees with you at the end of your message.
While the ancient sophists travelled around, the goal today is to increase your influence by drawing an audience to yourself.
But it should be understood that someone who consistently tells people how to think will eventually be surrounded only by people who think the same way they do. This, then, deludes the speaker into believing that everyone agrees with them, when in fact, they have simply eliminated any other voices which would give them the opportunity to philosophize and grow.
I enjoy stand up comedy, and one of the annual events I will usually listen to is the comedy set at the White House Correspondents Dinner. Many comedians call this the hardest room they’ve ever worked, and they don’t understand why. From where I sit, it’s obvious. They’ve gotten accustomed to rooms of people who laugh at their jokes because they agree, not because the jokes are particularly funny.
This is what happened to The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. It was a pioneering, hilarious show that pandered to one audience so much, they stopped being funny and simply said what their homogenous audience agreed with. The claps and the laughs were empty. When a comedian leaves that environment and finds themselves in a room with people from all across the political spectrum, they no longer get laughs and claps of agreement. They find their ‘humor’ was simply propoganda.
At the church I mentioned with the preacher who was skilled, as he veered more and more into political content and perspectives that only resonated with his limited circle of sycophants and enablers, his message lost any value to anyone outside of those groups. He got louder applause when he bought up political topics not because his words had value, but because he was attracting people who agreed with him. If you spout Republican ideals to a Republican audience, they’re going to cheer and tell you that you’re doing an amazing job. He was actually becoming a worse communicator while believing he was doing a better job.
In a society where media tries to lock us into categories, we must work — HARD — to hear other perspectives. We have to value them, seek them out, and put effort into understanding them.
It’s one of the reasons I hope I never have to stop being a professor. I constantly get a room full of young adults with a variety of perspectives and if I am open to it, I have a chance to be enriched by these viewpoints. And as a caution, if I lose my desire and willingness to understand other perspectives, I’ll lose any opportunity to impact my students as well.
Don’t try to find ways to win arguments. People are not transformed by argumentative jerks. And silver tongued politicians, preachers and media personalities are building kingdoms of straw, which will blow away.
Think deeply. Look for ways to be like Jesus, who made complex ideas easier to understand, not just making simple ideas interesting.
A great book to help become a better communicator is called Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath. In an age where we have more opportunity to share our thoughts than ever before, let’s make sure we have something worth saying, and wise ways to say it.