Rhetoric and its powers!

Plato was against rhetoric, because he was afraid of its power, which is honestly a substantial fear. Rhetoric could be used to convince people of lies, by people who know how to use it well. Aristotle knew the power of rhetoric but went a step further than Plato and described how its power worked by dividing argumentative speech appeals into three categories: logos (logic), ethos (credibility), and pathos (emotion). Using these rhetorical appeals properly a speaker can convince his audience of anything he wants. In the movie Wall Street, Michael Douglas exemplifies exactly what Plato was afraid of using the Aristotelian Devices of Speech.
The speech that Michael Douglas gave to the share holders of the particular company portrayed in the movie was in its entirety an appeal to logos. The whole speech underlined the fact that the company was in trouble and without his efforts it would be sure to fail. He even managed to make greed (an immoral emotion) appear logical and normal to the situation. Douglas used greed as one of the ways to connect himself to the share holders he was trying to convince, because nobody would invest in a company without expecting some kind of benefits or profits in return. He connected himself to his audience by standing amongst them, while the Board of Directors he was ridiculing were situated separately and above the audience they were appealing to. Douglas appealed to ethos, when he was giving his audience facts about the other companies that he has saved and the profits that were produced from his efforts. Douglas showed his knowledge in the previous business giants and the Board of Directors that were in control of the company. By raising his credibility he broke down his opponents by pointing on their mistakes, their non-investment into the company, and their excessive spending for no rational reasons. Douglas used appeal to pathos by connecting himself to the
audience, in ways I mentioned before, but also by connecting them all as Americans. He made his argument appear as patriotism and an appeal to nationalism is always a hard one to reason against. Douglas constructed his speech in such a manner where it had a beginning, middle, and a clear dramatic finish, like Aristotle truly appreciates. Douglas lead the audience through pointing out the problems of the company first, giving his knowledge of business and success facts in the middle, and ended the speech with the necessity of his taking over the failing company. Douglas gave the share holder audience no reasonable choice but to accept his proposal and the rejection of the Board of Directors.
This speech showed the power of rhetoric, but considering we did not watch what happened previously in the movie or afterwards, we do not know if Douglas’s intentions were noble or not. Aristotle mentions that in order to perceive the appeals as truth everything must be taken in consideration, including the particular situation and the background of the speaker. Nothing should be taken as face value, because rhetoric is powerful and there is a fine line between lies and truth. A person should always consider all the facts and form their own opinions based upon the knowledge they have, and not something they were convinced of on the surface.