Dr. Danielle S. Allen, currently of the University of Chicago, writes about "rhetoric," usually known as manipulative or persuasive language. She redefines it as "the art of talking to strangers as equals" and "the art of generating trust."
"Properly understood, rhetoric is not a list of stylistic rules but an outline of the radical commitment to other citizens that is needed for a just democratic politics."
These quotes are from Dr. Allen's 2004 book _Talking to Strangers: Anxieties of Citizenship since Brown versus Board of Education_. In that book she draws deeply not only from Greek and Renaissance classics, but from the splendid tradition of African American social thought, translating that thought into a program by which all Americans might come together as what she calls "political friends."
We need your program, Dr. Allen. I'm listening. And thank you.
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