Burke argues priesthoods that work to maintain the social order govern orientations. This can lead to cultural lag or the gap that results when a priesthood fails to maintain an orientation in light of communal changes. To account for cultural lag, a community can develop prophets who work to revise the orientation. To illustrate, I examined the University of Miami booster who provided improper benefits to student-athletes. As a result of the coverage of the scandal, the media worked with the college sports community to blame and chastise the NCAA in order to provide them with a plan for revision and restoration. This case illustrates how prophets can function to take up the cultural lag in a community by challenging the priesthood with its own sins and providing a means of restoration that adapts the orientation to current circumstances.
Conventional wisdom states that leftover frustrations from World War I necessitated an incremental rhetorical strategy for interventionists in the buildup to World War II. However, such considerations often miss another factor that bolstered American isolationism: anti-Semitism. In the interwar period, America saw a sharp uptick in anti-Semitic organizations that preached a vehement isolationist message. Because of this environment, interventionist rhetors, particularly Jewish rhetors, were denied access to traditional rhetorical resources. In response, one group turned to one of the few outlets available: comic books. Through allegory, a rhetorical form that combines an entertaining surface narrative with a strong but hidden ideological argument, these rhetors were able to reach broad audiences with interventionist messages from behind the veil of comic book adventures. This essay examines the ways in which one of those comic book characters, Captain America, was purposefully constructed to be an allegorical argument for intervention. Through a careful interplay of visuals and narrative themes, his creators made a compelling case for America’s involvement in the war.
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