To be able
to effectively persuade someone in to believing something there needs to be
some sort of disagreement within the argument. When having an opinion about something
whether it is about abortion, gay marriage, or The War on Drugs, there are always
two sides your personal opinion and the opposing or counter side of the
argument which is referred to as dissoi logoi. I recently gave a speech about
animal rights and animal cruelty and how is inhuman and should be made illegal
in the United States. Now while many do agree with this some say that animal
testing is necessary and needs to be done in order to release any product to
the public safely. The dissoi logoi public statement for me argument would be
something along the lines of, animal testing and animal research have played a pivotal
role in ensuring the safety for cosmetics, pharmaceutical, and household
cleaning products. Animal testing has helped with many things including medical
treatment, cures, preventions, vaccinations, and many more things that are essential
to the human health.
Each side of
animal testing do what they can to frame the issue by giving very little detail
about the opposing side in order to persuade their audience. An example of how
anti animal testing organizations frame would be how they talk about all the negative
horrible things that are being done to animal in labs by showing pictures or
telling stories as gruesome as they possibly can. However they do not share
with people how beneficial and how many people have been helped because of
animal testing. Pro animal testing organizations seem to give more statistics
of all the people that have been helped without saying what is being done to
the animals for people to be helped. The difference in the evidence is simply that
pro animal testing organizations talk about animals being killed where the
opposing side talks about the people are being saved because of it. I think
that both sides generally have the same target audience all ages can be
interested in something like this and neither side seem to favor a particular
age. If any this is a bigger issue for adults because they can understand and
help more than children can.
However many
assumptions are made when it comes to animal testing especially people that are
for animal testing. Many would assume that they could be consider killers and do
not have any love toward animals and are only testing the products to protect themselves
and their companies which is not true. I did a lot of research before choosing
a side. The reason I am against animal testing is because it has been proven
that there are alternatives to animal testing that are safe and effective. I am
also a very big animal lover so when coming into this I was hostile toward
animal testing. Although I am against it I do understand why animal testing is
done, I don’t necessarily agree with it but both sides have their arguments and
neither is right or wrong that is up to the audience to decide.
Examining dissoi logoi is a bit more than figuring out how to articulate the inverse position to what you hold. Rather, it is meant to give the persuader some insight into the mindset of the ambivalent audience. Yes, many support the use of animals in medical research and there is no doubt that such research has provided many benefits to society. I'm not certain, however, that "support" for animal testing is anything other than "support" for what is necessary. When animal rights advocates support the use of computer simulations, etc. I would suggest that there is some reason why such tests are insufficient. Does the FDA allow a drug or procedure to gain approval if it has only been tested through computer simulations? If what you oppose is required by law, then you have an argument with the FDA, not with the researchers. Consider the tactics of showing the graphic photos to people - and how they direct people's anger toward those doing the testing. What if those doing the testing "wished" they didn't have to proceed with such tests, but are forced to do so because without them, the ability to sell that drug publicly would not occur? Examining dissoi logoi is about understanding the exigency so that you can persuade appropriately. Keep digging!
ReplyDelete