Thank You for Arguing: Chapter 23 Summary & Analysis

Years ago, Heinrichs’ mother played a prank on his father. She convinced him to go to a party dressed in a bathing suit, fins, and a snorkel. The prank wasn’t too clever, but Heinrichs’ mother played pranks so rarely that her husband trusted her. Her prank illustrates the Greek concept of kairos—the perfect instant in which to persuade. Kairos is an important concept in many professions—over the course of their careers, people learn to recognize the right time for action.

Josef Stalin was one of history’s greatest masters of kairos. As a young man, he would remain silent during meetings, and then weigh in at the very end, effectively settling whatever argument his peers had been having. He did this so skillfully and so frequently that he trained his peers to think of him as the “decider” of all disputes.

“When an audience’s mood or beliefs are on the move,” Heinrichs argues, “you have a persuasive moment.” There are occasional moments of uncertainty or doubt during any speech, when the audience begins to question some of its assumptions. For example, say that a group of college administrators are trying to decide what foods to serve in the dining halls. Some of the professors turn the meeting into an argument about cultural sensitivity. Here, a good rhetorician might wait for the other members to argue more and more, until, exhausted, they reach a lull in the discussion. At this point, the rhetorician can say something like, “Here’s what I’m hearing,” thereby giving themselves control over the situation. Now, it’s easier for the rhetorician to sway the group, using logos, ethos, and pathos.

Another way to measure the kairos is to frame that moment in terms of pathos, not logos (i.e., the mood of the room, not the structure of the arguments). Imagine that Heinrichs wants an iPad. Instead of broaching the subject while his wife is doing the bills, he waits for kairos. He fixes her a nice meal and then makes his iPad “pitch.” When he makes his pitch, he’s sure to focus on the future tense, rather than focusing on the present-tense details (such as the bills).

Some of the greatest rhetoricians can turn their ethos liabilities into major assets. For instance, after being arrested and imprisoned, Martin Luther King, Jr. was able to turn jail into a sign of his martyr status. Similarly, after being elected president in 1992, Bill Clinton made a speech to Democrats in New Hampshire—a state where he’d been defeated in the primaries—and praised them for their loyalty. In both cases, Clinton and King were able to spot the perfect kairos—the time to turn a defeat into a victory.