August 30

In Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students the authors discuss the idea of opportunistic timing, the idea of the perfect timing for the best outcome, the idea kairos I found rather interesting.  Further interest was inspired by the symbolic nature of the depictions of Kairos and the explanation of such.  In the first depiction it is discussed that all he is doing would require ongoing practice, as would the mastery of perfect timing.  It is also mentioned that his hairstyle could represent the idea of seizing the moment and that the wings on his feet and back may suggest the fleeting nature of time.  The second image of Kairos suggests many of the same themes though in different ways.

What I find particularly interesting about Kairos, both with a capital K and without, is the implications of these ideas in today.  More specifically, the book discusses Isocrates opinion that kairos is particularly important in the matter of discussing major issues in their time.  Isocrates idea could potentially apply today in the discussion of current issues and their potential resolution.  If a particular issue is discussed at its most prevalent then there could be a higher likelihood of more invested rhetorical exchanges about the issue, which could potentially mean a higher diversity in ideas being brought into the discussion.  The more ideas brought into the discussion the more likely a resolution which would have aspects many sides of the debate would appreciate.  The book discusses this exact idea further using the example of gun control and how the intensity of the debate grows considerably closely following a shooting.  There are moments of opportunity in which these debates suddenly get more attention and action could be more advantageous than other times.  Another example could be the BP oil spill in relation to environmentalism, many took the opportunity to use the disaster as an argument against the oil industry.  These ideas were further explored in the book when discussing the issues surrounding Chief Illiniwek, the portion I found particularly interesting of which was the idea that Charlene Teters took advantage of and opening to make a new argument on an issue and eventually that issue became an urgent matter, which further illustrates the power of kairos in that her point of view was considered a major factor in the issue.

Further implications of kairos on current events was the political reaction to the Virginia Tech shootings and the avoiding of the kairotic moment by politicians for their own political gain.  This particularly applies to today considering there are elections coming up fairly soon, yes they are approximately a year away but all the political preparations are beginning now.  It is interesting that politicians would put the potential for political gain above taking advantage of an opportunity to discuss a major political issue in our country which if made prominent could potentially have an interesting effect on any form of upcoming election.  I would think that politicians would take the opportunity to begin a discourse about the issue if only to undermine their opponent because the voters are more likely to take their side than that of their opponent; whichever side that might be who has the upper hand.  Though that is not necessarily the most honest reasoning for why politicians may begin the discussion, at least the issue would be being discussed rather than ignored not to mention purposely swept under the rug.

It was also interesting to me to read about kairos in terms of invention by using the thought about times, places, etc., which would be the kairos, in relation to any available arguments about the situation, which would be the invention.  I found this interesting as another potential approach to an argument.  Another interesting approach to argument mentioned revolving around kairos was the idea of understanding many sides to the arguments in order to make an idea stronger and opposing ideas weaker. (Crowley and Hawhee 44-61)