Is Timing All That Matters in Rhetoric?

Does it really matter what we say, or how we say it, as long as the timing is right? While it’s easy to assume that a great orator, politician, writer, or rhetor can simply enchant their audience by the weightiness of the words, it’s interesting to ponder the possibility that perhaps all that matters is timing. Would it not be more effective to deliver a speech on protecting the environment after an oil-drilling catastrophe has just occurred? Don’t you think a politician would have much more success in a speech for gaining support for military action just after terrorist attack? Surely, there must be a certain amount of consequence placed on the actual content, for if the content does not pertain precisely to the audience, constraints, and exigence, the rhetorical effort would fail. However, if the rhetor does not take into account the timing, then he/she may be setting himself/herself up for failure.

A perfect example of the success of correct timing is Hitler and his efforts to enrapture an entire country. In The Rhetoric of Hitler's Battle, Burke highlights the many reasons why and how Hitler’s propaganda to the people of Germany was so successful. Throughout his essay, Burke lays out the massive web of Hitler’s movement and shows precisely how he was able to achieve the ultimate deception. First, Burke points out that Hitler knew what exactly what he was doing when he chose Munich as his center for the Nazi movement:

“Every movement that would recruit its followers among many discordant and divergent bands, must have some spot towards which all roads lead… Hitler considered this matter carefully and decided that his center must be not merely a centralizing hub of ideas, but a mecca geographically located, towards which all eyes could turn at the appointed hours of prayer. So he selected Munich as the materialization of his unifying panacea” (192).

While it is obvious that Hitler chose Munich based on its many advantageous qualities that he knew would support his movement, one cannot ignore the fact that if had chosen to start his movement at a time other than the one he did, then it is very possible his revolutionary tactics would have failed.  At the time, Germany was devastated by poverty and corruption from the after effects of the First World War. Had Hitler tried to create a movement in a time that the German people were successful and prosperous, it simply would not have worked. Hitler knowingly provided a perfect scapegoat, the Jews, at time when the German people needed a symbol to unite their hate and desperation for their situation.  Simply put Hitler gave the people the perfect medicine to their ailing wounds. Hitler was in the right place at the right time.

Going off this idea of timing, it can cause one to analyze whether the successful figures in history are simply products of good timing. For example, Shakespeare, arguably the most well-known and greatest writer in history, could have possibly only received the recognition he did because of his timing. At the time Shakespeare began writing, there were many great, successful writers who now have disappeared throughout time and history. With the emergence of the printing press and Shakespeare’s gaining success as a writer combine to create the great literary figure that we know today. Some argue that at the time, there were writers who were even more proficient and groundbreaking then Shakespeare. But, evidently they were not at the right time at the right place to receive the everlasting recognition that Shakespeare did.

Overall, timing, in theory, is everything. While it would be a great fault to assume that the actual content does not matter, I certainly take the claim that without the correct timing, much of the famous rhetoric we know and study would not have made their lasting impacts.

-Clare Davis