Conference Presentations » SEACS 2024 Presentation

SEACS 2024 Presentation

Original Title: The Rhetoric of World Dominance: American Culture and Interventionist Slogans
More-Suited Title: The Rhetoric of Saviors: American Ideology and Imperialism
Settled Title: The Cold War Never Ended (or Maybe It Just Paused)

Scope of the Presentation

  • “Good Guy” Rhetoric and Ideology
  • American Exceptionalism
  • Orwellian Faith
  • So-Called Irrational Actors
  • Interventionist Rhetoric and Ukraine

Interventionist Statements in Recent History

  • “When America is engaged … we are a force for peace and stability.”
    –James A. Baker, III (circa 1990)
  • “…take the fight to the enemy in Afghanistan, in Iraq, and across the world.”
    –President George W. Bush (8/28/2007)
  • “Our relationship serves as a cornerstone for security, democracy, and human rights in Ukraine and the broader region.”
    —The White House (9/01/2021) & Antony J. Blinken

Unpacking the Rhetorical Layers in the Above Statements

  • Beyond the scope of a 15-20 minute presentation
  • Requires a discussion of historical context
  • George W. Bush, although with clouded judgment, was looking to deal with 9/11
    • With an 86%-90% (Gallup) approval rating following 9/11, he had a ‘god’ complex

Wayne Slater, Austin bureau chief for the Dallas Morning News, co-wrote Bush’s Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush.

Bush believes very much in the core ideas of Christianity….Now, publicly he’s very, very wise not to say, “I’m God’s candidate”….Privately, he has said those things. He said he believes that he is God’s candidate–that God has chosen him. –General

Slater, Wayne. “The Spirituality of George W. Bush.” Frontline.com, 29 April 2004.

Definitions of Rhetoric

  • Cy Knoblauch: “the theory and practice of public discourse, the arts of communication, argument, narrative, and persuasion” (21)
  • Aristotle: “Let rhetoric be [defined as] an ability, in each [particular] case, to see the available means of persuasion” (1.2.1, Kennedy p. 37)
  • Cultural Studies: how meaning is conveyed through concepts, discourse, and artifacts.

Rhetoric of the “Good Guy”

  • Manifest Destiny–ordained by a divine being
  • Military Intervention Good…if on god’s side
    • General William “Jerry” Boykin in 2003:
      “told a church gathering in Sandy, Ore., that foes like bin Laden and Hussein ‘will only be defeated if we come against them in the name of Jesus'” (Thompson)
  • Major General Thomas Solheim reflects on Desert Strom 30 years later (10:44.00)
    • “sacrificed for god and country” (11:53.00)
    • “under austere conditions” and the world’s most expensive military (11:07.00)
  • Jerry Falwell claims “The United States Constitution has as its cornerstone the Ten Commandments” (Winters para. 8)
  • American Tautology: Our interventions are always good because we’re good
    • Spiritual fitness in the armed services: “a basic tenet of spirituality: an individual understanding of and experience with that which transcends the self” (38).
    • National Defense University Press (2012)

“An organization that serves a higher purpose and has a moral and ethical culture has the potential to positively influence members’ worldviews, especially concerning purpose, values, and identity.”

Sweeney, Patrick J., Jeffrey E. Rhodes, and Bruce Boling. “Spiritual Fitness: A Key Component of Total Force Fitness.” Joint Force Quarterly, vol. 66, July 2012, p. 40.

Lesson from Billy Graham, Pastor to Presidents

  • George W. Bush claims, “Graham’s words planted the ‘mustard seed in my soul’ that eventually led to a decision to “recommit my heart to Jesus Christ” (BGEA Staff, 2024)
  • Frank Lambert notes Billy Graham’s moralistic rhetoric surrounding communism
    • “People like Billy Graham framed the Cold War as a moral conflict. It is evil versus good. It is godless communism versus a God-fearing America.”
    • “…he was able to cast his message as one of God-fearing America against godless communism.”
    • William Randolph Hearst “puffs Graham” and elevates him on the national stage
  • “[R]evival of evangelical expectation” following the Soviets acquiring a nuclear bomb: “Billy Graham…assailed the Antichrist of godless communism and warned the wayward of the imminence of Armageddon” (Noble 109).

Orwellian Faith

  • Cafeteriazation of Religious Beliefs
  • Double-Think (Orwell 32-33)
    • The mystical mind is already primed–through immersion or force–to be moved by good vs evil narratives
  • Donald J. Trump pushes the idea he’s been ordained by god
    • Truth Social video (to 1:30.00): “on June 14, 1946, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, ‘‘’I need a caretaker,’’ so God gave us Trump.”
  • Many evangelicals believe Trump is ordained by god

Barry Hankins, historian and expert on evangelicalism:

“[Trump’s] support has gone from begrudging to enthusiastic. Many evangelicals now see Trump as their champion and defender — perhaps even savior….Unwittingly, in my view, many evangelicals are welcoming authoritarianism and courting blasphemy.

Kornfield, Meryl et al. “‘Ordained by God’: Trump’s Legal Problems Galvanize Iowa Evangelicals.” The Washington Post, 14 Jan. 2024.

American Exceptionalism and Its Limits

  • Republican Party Platform “Preamble”
    • “We believe in American Exceptionalism. We belive the United States of America is unlike any other nation on earth” (p. 1)
    • “…the people, not the government, are the best stewards of our country’s God-given natural resources.” (p. 1)
  • Interestingly, Al Gore, Jr.’s Earth in the Balance (1992) invokes christian stewardship as a way to protect the environment, but laments that
    “critics have gained currency in part because of the prevailing silence with which most denominations have reacted to the growing evidence of an ecological holocaust. Nor does it help that some religious leaders have seemed to encourage environmental recklessness.” (p. 245)
  • Seymour Martin Lipset (p. 66)
    • Discussion of LBJ not infusing moralistic terms surrounding the Vietnam War
    • LBJ feared an anti-communist moralism would fuel a McCarthy-esque witchhunt

Support for a war is as moralistic as resistance to it. To endorse a war and call on people to kill others and die for the country, Americans must define their role in a conflict as being on God’s side against Satan–for morality, against evil.

Lipset, Seymour Martin. American Exceptionalism: A Double-edged Sword. Norton, 1997, p. 20.

American Rationality and Everyone Else

  • Immersed in American ideology
    • Markets good
    • Taxes bad
    • Consumerism
  • Economic Rationality
    • Utility Maximization: “The rational actor chooses the action, from among those given, which maximizes utility” (Simon)
    • Choose based on self interest
  • Knoblauch derives his definition of discourse from Wittgenstein’s (1968) concept of a “‘language game,’ a system of conventions governing the game’s players (speakers, writers, hearers, readers)” (21).
  • Ability to predict behavior (for game theory)
  • Geopolitical Context
    • Not doing what the United States claims is “appropriate” is irrational
    • Officials use the term perjoratively to denote madness
  • This is different and less powerful, rhetorically, than labeling someone “evil”
    • Axis of Evil: Iran, Iraq, North Korea
    • Geroge W. Bush on Saddam Hussein being an “evil doer”
    • Bush saw into Vladimir Putin’s soul…(Robertson)
    • As the US’s irrational actions in Iraq and Afghanistan deepened, Putin wasn’t on board
  • Putin apparently warned Bush that a terrorist attack was coming to the United States (Stent)

Irrational Actors

  • Terrorists
  • States sponsoring terrorism
  • Belligerent Leaders and States
    • Vladimir Putin
    • Kim Jong-il
    • Iran supports a variety of “terrorist” groups with weapons (US Dept of State)

Irrational Actions (what gets you on the list)

  • Anti-tank weapons, assault rifles, training, etc.
  • Being allied with Iran (Syria)
  • North Korean “Concerns”
    • Restricting free expression, the press, and the internet, censorship
    • Harsh Prison Conditions
    • Allowing human rights abuses

Righteousness as Absolute Truth

  • Absolutist views of one’s divine guidance create blinders
  • Powerful rhetorical move for those like-minded…entire political parties
  • Preachers, Presidents, Promoters
  • Bush’s righteousness blinded him to the calls from religious authorities (Pew Research Center)
  • White Christian Nationalism
    • Black and Brown groups are “terrorists”
    • White people are … (Byman)

CONCLUSION

Definition of state sponsor of terrorism, State Dept Assessment of Cuba

“For decades, the Cuban government has fed, housed, and provided medical care for murderers, bombmakers, and hijackers, while many Cubans go hungry, homeless, and without basic medicine.”

US Embassy in Cuba. “U.S. Announces Designation of Cuba as a State Sponsor of Terrorism.” 11 January, 2021.

Works Cited

Aristotle. On Rhetoric: A Theory of Civic Discourse. 2nd ed. Trans. George A. Kennedy. Oxford, UP: 2007.

Cole, Brendan. “George Bush Reveals Shock at Realizing Prigozhin Served Him: ‘I Survived’.” Newsweek. 11 Sept 2023, https://www.newsweek.com/bush-prigozhin-russia-ukraine-yaltast-petersburg-1825907

Gast, John. American Progress. 1872. Painting. Chromolithograph created by George A. Crofutt, 1873. http://loc.gov/pictures/resource/ppmsca.09855/.

Gore, Al, Jr. Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit. Houghton Mifflin, 1992.

Knoblauch, Cy. Discursive Ideologies: Reading Western Rhetoric. Utah State UP, 2014.

Kornfield, Meryl, Colby Itkowitz, Hannah Knowles, and Marianne LeVine. “‘Ordained by God’: Trump’s Legal Problems Galvanize Iowa Evangelicals. The Washington Post, 14 Jan. 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2024/01/14/trump-evangelicals-iowa/

Lipset, Seymour Martin. American Exceptionalism: A Double-edged Sword. Norton, 1997.

Moore, James and Wayne Slater. Bush’s Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush. Wiley, 2003.

Noble, David F. The Religion of Technology: The Divinity of Man and the Spirit of Invention. Penguin, 1999.

Orwell, George. 1984. The New American Library of World Literature, 1961.

Pew Research Center. Religion News Service. “Religious Groups Issue Statements on War with Iraq.” 19 March 2003, https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2003/03/19/publicationpage-aspxid616/

Robberson, Tod. The Dallas Morning News. “I looked the Man (Putin) in the Eye and Saw … The Enemy.” 29 June 2010. https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/2010/06/29/i-looked-the-man-putin-in-the-eye-and-saw-the-enemy/

Simon, HA. “Rationality in Society.” International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences. Edited by N. J. Smelser and P. B. Baltes. Pergamon, 2001, pp. 12782-12786.

Stent, Angela. “The Impact of September 11 on US-Russian Relations.” Brookings. 8 September 2021, https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-impact-of-september-11-on-us-russian-relations/

Sweeney, Patrick J., Jeffrey E. Rhodes, and Bruce Boling. “Spiritual Fitness: A Key Component of Total Force Fitness.” Joint Force Quarterly, vol. 66, July 2012, https://ndupress.ndu.edu/Portals/68/Documents/jfq/jfq-66/jfq-66_35-41_Sweeney-Rhodes-Boling.pdf?ver=2017-12-06-115617-820

Thompson, Mark. “The Boykin Affair.” Cnn.com. 27 October 2003. https://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/10/27/timep.boykin.tm/

U.S. Department of State. Bureau of Counterterrorism. Country Reports on Terrorism 2021: Cuba. https://www.state.gov/reports/country-reports-on-terrorism-2021/cuba/

U.S. Department of State. Bureau of Counterterrorism. Country Reports on Terrorism 2021: Iran. https://www.state.gov/reports/country-reports-on-terrorism-2021/iran/

U.S. Department of State. Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. 2019 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. https://www.state.gov/reports/2019-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/north-korea/

U.S. Department of State. Bureau of Counterterrorism. Country Reports on Terrorism 2021: Syria. https://www.state.gov/reports/country-reports-on-terrorism-2021/syria/

Winters, Michael Sean. “How the Ghost of Jerry Falwell Conquered the Republican Party.” The New Republic, 5 March 2012, https://newrepublic.com/article/101296/falwell-gop-winters