After winning over many of the initially suspicious members of Atlanta high society, Rhett begins to deliberately ruin his own reputation in a manner that suggests that he regards their affection as insignificant and trivial. At a party, he shocks and outrages other guests when he uses logos to undermine their faith in Confederate victory: 

“All wars are sacred,” he said. “To those who have to fight them. If the people who started wars didn’t make them sacred, who would be foolish enough to fight? But, no matter what rallying cries the orators give to the idiots who fight, no matter what noble purposes they assign to wars, there is never but one reason for a war. And that is money. All wars are in reality money squabbles. But so few people ever realize it. Their ears are too full of bugles and drums and fine words from stay-at-home orators.”

Firm belief in the Confederate cause is almost unanimous in Atlanta at the beginning of the war, uniting both the matriarchs of the upper classes and lower-class figures such as Belle Watling. This makes Rhett's argument all the more shocking to those who hear him. While others believe that the South cannot lose because their cause is just, Rhett uses logos in his argument that there are no high ideals at stake in the war. Rather, he reasons, "all wars are in reality money squabbles." The values and beliefs that others claim to believe in are, for Rhett, merely excuses that politicians "give to the idiots that fight." He looks at the war in a logical, materialistic manner that outrages other Southerners, who are emotionally invested in the war. Throughout the novel, Rhett represents a cold pragmatism that eschews abstract ideals.