[Tyr Zalo Hawk]: 712.Essays.A Pleasurable Rhetorical Analysis

Our nation is gripped in “A strange and disturbing epidemic” where the assumption that “If you avoid all things pleasurable, you will live a long as happy life” reigns in the minds of many. Michael Flocker, author of The Hedonism Handbook, is a rhetorician who, by carefully considering his audience, effectively works towards changing this. Taking on the task of rewriting the mindset of an entire nation of workers trapped in their high-rise offices – who seem content with such an imprisonment for their entire lives – and using a combination of only the most hard-hitting of rhetorical skills and techniques, he manages to take his audience from their mundane, routine-based lives and shove them, headfirst, onto the path he thinks they need to be taking; a path known as Hedonism. But what does this all really mean?
Flocker is a man who knows that most of the people reading his book aren’t stupid, and don’t want a lecture on why their lives are wrong. So, he doesn’t give them that. Instead, he starts off his introduction with the definition to a word which has been warped in the contemporary world to its polar opposite, and then slams them straight into reality with his opening line: “YES, YES, I KNOW, CIGARETTES ARE BAD AND SEX CAN BE DANGEROUS.” What more could a nation of bored readers want than someone who’s willing to talk about the taboos of the modern world so freely? Throughout his introduction he holds onto this ‘No B.S.’ voice in his writing which helps to keep reader involved. They don’t feel talked to just because he’s criticizing their way of life, they feel leveled with because he’s willing to do so in such a brusque manner. No, people don’t like being called “over-caffeinated hamsters on a wheel,” but they do like the idea of being able to be happy amidst dealing with all the stress involved in being one of those hamsters. It’s because of this, the reader’s willingness to accept that they are being portrayed in this fashion, that Flocker truly shines. Should this article have been directed at anyone but the ‘city folk’ who go to work in cubicles and who, statistically speaking, watch Reality TV as consistently as they take showers, his voice would’ve been his downfall. Instead, it becomes one of his greatest strengths.
His examples and metaphors, such as the hamster one above, leave an impact on the reader that they’re not soon to forget. He draws in his audience by placing the over obvious nuances and habits of their lives right into the spotlight. “People stare at computer screens all day, eat lunch at their desks, plan their daily schedules on hand-held devices, and make ‘play-dates’ for their children.” You don’t even have to be a parent or working adult to understand because, truth be told, even most teens nowadays who read this introduction grew up in a family that took part in these so called ‘play-dates.’ These images and familiar feelings are linked together, one right after another, with criticism of the lifestyles the metaphors state that they, the audience, choose to subject themselves to. “…Our own lives [are] reduced to a mere afterthought.” Flocker states later in his commentary, driving in his point that his readers are so disconnected from even their own lives that they couldn’t possibly be truly happy. Each word of his metaphors repeats itself in your head until you can’t forget it, leaving the image and all that’s wrong with it behind in your head.
In being able to paint pictures that the audience can not only see, but feel, we can tell that his article possesses all necessary aspects of kairos. Modern readers know what he’s talking about when he says things like “Sixty-hour work weeks, bulging stock portfolios and a packed agenda” or “The ranting of religious extremists, life coaches and jaded psychologists“ because they have previous connections to, or knowledge of, these things. By using phrases like “disturbing epidemic,” “manufactured realities,” and even “Spartan self-denial” we can see that he’s aware of the modern masses who are mostly disillusioned hypochondriacs with a thirst for anything that will take their mind off of their cyclic lives. And in this a “most precarious era” where “pleasure… is currently at the state of extinction” what better time is there to try to convince people to practice a belief which would bring it back from extinction, and bring them a piece of the life that they only believe exists on TV?
Overall, Flocker demonstrates an incredible ability to be an effective rhetorician. By combining strategies that would only really work on the people who he is trying to change, his introduction becomes a work of great rhetorical depth, instead of, what most would consider, a failure in this endeavor. Beautifully constructed images of disgusting truth, wrapped up in a heavily sarcastic shell and flavored with just the right amount of pure, unavoidable temptation. Flocker knows his audience, and knows how to talk to them; that makes him the winner here.

© Tyr Hawkaluk (2004-Present)