Archive for March, 2008

Sepakbola dan retorika

Tuesday, March 4th, 2008
EURO 2004 dimenangkan oleh
Yunani. Negeri yang identik
dengan sang filsuf, Aristoteles
yang mengajarkan kita soal retorika.
Sepakbola dan berdebat punya
satu kesamaan, adanya persaingan
dan perbedaan kepentingan.
Untuk bisa menang dalam persuasi,
diperlukan 3 unsur yang wajib
dipenuhi.
Logos, Pathos dan Ethos.
Itulah trilogi yang harus seimbang
saat kita beradu argumen.
Logos adalah soal isi, dan
kesimpulan dari fakta yang
dibungkus dengan rasionalisasi
(alasan dan penjelasan).
Dalam penerapannya kita tentu
sudah tau metode induktif
dan deduktif. Dari berbagai
contoh menjadi kesimpulan, atau
sebaliknya.
Dalam sepakbola, Logos adalah
jumlah gol. Tim yang menang ditentukan
bukan dari banyaknya pelanggaran,
jumlah tendangan bebas atau sudut,
atau persentase penguasaan bola.
Sangat obyektif, tim yang membuat
gol lebih banyak, itu yang menang.
Namun kadang, kemenangan juga diukur
dari aspek Pathos, yakni bagaimana
cara membuat diri kita disukai,
bisa diterima. Dalam satu ungkapan:
menjadi juara di hati.
Dalam berdebat aspek Pathos adalah
masalah etika, cara berdandan,
nada dan gaya bicara yang sopan
dan elegan, sehingga bisa memenangkan
argumen sekaligus merebut simpati.
Sportivitas dan permainan cantik
adalah aspek Pathos dalam sepakbola
yang juga mendapatkan penilaian.
Sebuah tim yang kalah dalam jumlah
gol bisa tetap merebut simpati
asalkan bermain indah dan dibarengi
perilaku sportif para pemain dan
suporter.
Ethos adalah aspek kepribadian,
berkaitan dengan karakter,
pengalaman, sejarah prestasi
dan reputasi seseorang.
Seminar kesehatan yang dibawakan
seorang dokter lulusan S3 dan
sering muncul TV tentu akan terasa
berbeda ketimbang dibawakan
seorang mahasiswa S1 calon dokter,
walau materinya sama saja.
Siapa yang mengatakannya, itu yang
membedakan bobot dari sebuah argumen.
Dalam sepakbola, inilah faktor
sejarah atau tradisi yang membentuk
mental juara. Nama besar sebuah
klub memberi nilai tambah dalam
sebuah duel. Meski sebuah tim tenar
kalah dalam jumlah gol dalam
satu pertandingan, namun rasa kagum
tak langsung luntur. Kontras andai
itu terjadi pada sebuah tim papan
tengah atau calon degradasi.
Sepakbola adalah miniatur kehidupan
yang mengajarkan soal kompetisi.
Beradu argumen atau yang di Indonesia
menjadi sebuah idiom ’silat lidah’
adalah bagian dari kompetisi.
Gebuk-gebukan adalah budaya primitif
dan membuat kita kehilangan nilai
sebagai manusia yang seharusnya
mampu menang dengan cara yang elegan.
Dengan logika yang tepat,
fakta menjadi kesimpulan yang valid.
Hanya jumlah gol yang menentukan
siapa pecundang dan pemenang.
Dengan penyampaian yang elegan,
kita memenangkan argumen sekaligus
simpati
dari rekan bicara. Andai
kalah dalam duel Logos, masih
tersisa rasa hormat dari sang lawan
dan suporter, karena sportivitas
dan permainan yang memukau.
Dengan terus berjuang, belajar
dan bersaing, kita menambah kualitas
dan membangun reputasi
. Tak beda
dengan tiap klub atau negara
yang mengejar trofi. Kelak semua
akan dicatat oleh sejarah, yang akan
merekam prestasi sehingga mampu
memberi bobot lebih saat kita
berbicara, dalam arti sesungguhnya
atau saat harus tampil dalam bidang
yang kita geluti.
Sepakbola dapat dianalogikan
sebagai retorika. Untuk jadi
pemenang, Aristoteles telah mengajarkan
caranya dengan menang melalui
Logos, Pathos dan Ethos.
+ yoDi +
I wrote this for SOCCER site…
Further explanation, please read RHETORIC

Rhetoric

Sunday, March 2nd, 2008

What is rhetoric?

The linguistic talent, the mastery
of communication, the skill needed
for orators, writers, politicians,
or even anyone… yes,
YOU!

How to win arguments?
Want to influence others?
Can you make them adore you?

Those are your questions, right?
well… let’s learn something
Greek today.

Listen to what Aristotle taught.

There are 3 important elements
when you’re delivering arguments.

- Logos

- Pathos

- Ethos

***

Logos is about the FACT AND LOGIC.

Are you saying the right thing?
And.. where are the sources of info?

How can those facts be concluded?
And.. what’s the summary of all?

Can these be proven to be true?
And.. what if in the end it’s wrong?

Those are the simple questions,
ask yourself before you’re preparing
any presentation.

***

Pathos is about how you WIN
your listeners’
HEART.

It’s about appearance, gesture,
dressing or grooming, speaking
the proper language and how
you present yourself to be
acceptable to the audience.

When Fabio Capello was introduced
as new
England coach, the first
thing he did.. learn how to speak
English.

When Jimmy (Eminem, in 8 Mile)
was about to perform as rapper
on a duel of insults,
he put on the right costume,
speak with black accent and
using slangs which familiar to
the hip-hop community.

Or as the famous quote from St.Paul
said, "When in Rome, I behave like
Romans."
 

Now we know this proverb:

When in Rome, do as Romans do.

***

Ethos, is about WHO YOU ARE

Character, personality, experience,
background of education, reputation,
expertise, specialization, achievement,
existence, etc.

Those things are also important.

Are you trustworthy, capable,
deserved, the right and suitable
figure.. to say something?

That’s the explanation.

"Where are we going?
What will we do?
How will we solve the crisis?"

These phrases….

They would have different meanings,
if it said by the someone
to his/her spouse.

Context: Their relationship

And compare it if
it’s said by the same person as
president in front of his/her cabinet.

Context: Meeting to make new policy

That’s what ETHOS, it’s about
who you are… related to what
you’re going to say.

***

Those are the three elements, now
if you stil have more time…
I’ll teach you how to win the
battle of
LOGOS

A good argument must have reasoning
and backed-up with the right
examples, facts or evidences.

A-R-E-C

Argument-Reasoning-Examples-Conclusion

"This blog is very useful and
interesting
(A)
Because it gives me a lot of information
(R)

Here I can read nice articles and

poetries. For example, this one (E)
I’m gonna read further and I will
send the link to my friends.
(C)"

That’s DEDUCTIVE.. from a general
concept, explained into details,
and concluded.

now the opposite is INDUCTIVE
Many examples listed, then all those
facts are indicators of something
and here comes the argument, which
is also the conclusion.

E-R-A-C

Examples-Reasoning-Argument-Conclusion

"I’ve read some of the poems here,
some are written and several languages,
in English, Italian and Spanish
This blog is not only about fancy
words, I also learn about many
life-skills I’ve never been taught
before
(E)
Only few people can speak more
than one language, and the materials
he wrote here.. he can conclude
the core from books he read,
he read and write a lot..
(R)
And that’s why he wrote a title
for his blog "Read, write, re-write…"
(A) The writer of this blog must be
a brilliant guy
(C)."

How self-serving and narcissistic
is this guy… (another conclusion)
Haha…

The lesson is… make sure you
deliver something in the format
of
A-R-E-C or E-R-A-C

Don’t just suddenly jump into conlusion!

***

Be careful with absolutism…

Select words wisely.. especially
when you use:

-all, none
-always, never
-everything, nothing

"All men are liars."

What if there is an honest guy,
me for example…

"You never read my blog."

But now I can make you read more
and more… read also the poem
"Never believe in never"

"She’s smart, she can do everything."

Everything without limit, I doubt that.

***

The next is.. NON SEQUITUR, it’s
a latin phrase, literally it says

"Not following"

Give the right examples from
your argument. Make the right
conclusion out of your gathered
facts.

If you fail, that’s what is called
as NON SEQUITUR

***

Generalization and localization.

Ingat iklan ini?

"Semua orang pakai oli …."
(Pelumas nomor satu, katanya)

"Semua orang pakai … ngapain beda?"
(Iklan penyedia jasa sambungan ponsel)

Gimana kalo ternyata ada yang
pake merek yang beda?

Atau sebaliknya

"Nyamuk sini cuma takut…"

Gimana nyamuk yang di sana?

***

Unproven facts

Sesuatu yang belum terbukti
ga bisa dijadikan bahan argumen.

Inter Milan adalah tim terkuat
karena belum terkalahkan.

But last weekend, Napoli crushed
them. It’s not proven yet.

http://www.detiksport.com/sepakbola/index.php/detik.read/tahun/2008/bulan/03/tgl/03/time/050616/idnews/902696/idkanal/71

***

Korelasi

Dua peristiwa berurutan, namun
ga menjamin ada keterkaitan atau
hubungan sebab-akibat.

"Tuh kan jadi turun hujan,
habis dari tadi kamu nangis terus sih."

Apa hubungannya?

Hujan terjadi karena awan ngumpul,
ga nyambung deh…

"Lalu lintas macet karena ada
demonstrasi di depan Monas."

Mungkin ada hubungannya, tapi
masih bisa dibantah. Tiap hari
walau ga ada demo pun, jalanan
sering macet, bisa aja karena
ada sebab lain (lampu merah rusak,
jumlah kendaraan terlalu banyak, dll)

***

Let’s move topic into PATHOS

Learn the value of your audience.

When a president of a country

in front of church members, he spoke

"We believe…"

"We are called…"

"It is the price that we must pay…"

"We must sacrifice…"

Those phrases are what appealing to
the ears of Christian community.

"We believe we must attack ..
(other country who was accused
as the terrorists)

We are called to defend our country.
It is the price that we must pay
to see the bright future.
Therefore we must sacrifice, and
our soldiers already did as we
sent them to that country."

Remember a name? and the country?

Use local dialect if you can.

When Frank Rijkaard signed as
coach of
Barcelona, in the first
press conference.. he greeted with
Spanish. But.. there, they speak
Catalan. The next occasions, he
used more Catalan dialect.

Dress-up accordingly.

Remember.. when in Rome, dress-up
also like Romans

Try to do mirroring.

Imitate some part of the other’s
gesture, mimic and movement.

But not too obvious… this isn’t
for a comedy show.

Be a good listener and paraphrase.

Ask when you don’t understand, make
the other felt proud as able to
explain and act smart.

***

Now… ETHOS, is about your
personality and skill.

It would be silly to preach about
how dangerous cigarettes are, while
the audience know you’re a smoker.

Compare this, me (an ordinary
employee) to a well-known figure
who had wrote a lot and has established
companies…

Let’s say,
Mr.Hermawan Kartajaya or
Mr.Rheinald Kasali

We are teaching about marketing,
let’s say in a seminar.

The content is the same, but
WHO SAYS IT makes the contrast!

People will pay more to listen
to a famous figure in a speech.

***

Develop those three aspects…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modes_of_persuasion

Improve your LOGOS to deliver
your message.

Make them feel "we are alike"
by appealing to
PATHOS

Build your ETHOS so that
people will trust you and
what you’re saying.

Thanks to Aristotle who had inspired
Jay Heinrichs who wrote
THANK YOU FOR ARGUING.

Nice book!

+ yoDi +