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"Men," he
began his address to the officers, measuring his pauses carefully. "You're
American officers. The officers of no other army in the world can make
that statement. Think about it." He waited a moment to permit them
to think about it. "These people are your guests!" he shouted
suddenly. "They've traveled over three thousand miles to entertain
you. How are they going to feel if nobody wants to go out and watch
them? What's going to happen to their morale? Now men, it's no skin
off my behind. But that girl that wants to play the accordion for you
today is old enough to be a mother. How would you feel if your own mother
traveled over three thousand miles to play the accordion for some troops
that didn't want to watch her? How is that kid whose mother that accordion
player is old enough to be going to feel when he grows up and learns
about it? We all know the answer to that one. Now, men, don't misunderstand
me. This is all voluntary, of course. I'd be the last colonel in the
world to order you to go to that U.S.O. show and have a good time, but
I want every one of you who isn't sick enough to be in a hospital to
go to that U.S.O. show right now and have a good time, and that's and
order!"
-- Joseph Heller, Catch-22
I've heard variations
of this speech many times in my cadet career; the most recent time was
my CO talking about Sandhurst. "Saturday's training event is Sandhurst,
and there's going to be a formation down here for it. Now it's not mandatory,
but if you don't show up, there will probably be a small punishment."
The dichotomy of the statement is obvious, and yet it's accepted as
legitimate logic. We're told the statement, "know your audience"
often. From a dramaturgical perspective, "all the world's a stage
and we are but actors upon it." All social interaction is a performance
for an audience. In order to have a successful performance (to appear
competent, be accepted, have people listen to you) one needs to appeal
to the audience. What an audience wants is affected by their, gender,
race, religion (or lack there of), social class, occupation, etc. Underlying
messages can be transmitted. For example, we know that Joe knows his
statement is illogical; therefore, we don't think that he is illogical
for saying it. If your performance fails (i.e. you try to talk down
to or manipulate educated people) you lose legitimacy. Legitimacy is
necessary to get people to believe in you.