When I was on a backpacking trip with my family we were planning on staying near Rae lakes for a day to fish. We crossed Glen Pass early in the day and by the time we got to the lake we had half the day left, giving us one and a half days to fish. Our plan was working perfectly for the first ten minutes, but we quickly realized that we could not stay here another day and a half. There were mosquitoes everywhere, and we were getting eaten alive. Although we had planned to stay there another day we formulated a new plan which involved us doubling our hiking distance the next day in order to leave early. In the end, we were persuaded by our surroundings, the mosquitoes, and hiked twelve miles, and over two passes in one day.Gorgias pointed out a similar situation when he explains that through sight, the warriors were urged to go to war. They put their "bronze and iron war-gear of ward" which prompted fear (paragraph 16). The warriors were originally scared and uneasy about fighting, but once they got ready to fight, their adrenaline took over and they became fierce warriors ready to conquer the foe.
You may be wondering how fearful warriors relate to my backpacking experience. One extremely important detail that I omitted earlier is that I have a phobia of mosquitoes. The moment that I felt the mosquitoes start to swarm, I was 100% persuaded that we should not stay another day near the lake fishing. I, just like the warriors, was able to channel my fear into doing something that was hard and would
require more effort than if I had just stayed in my fearful state.
I like the analogy! I didn't feel like I related much with Gorgias's tale until I read your post- I know exactly what you mean about surroundings (specifically mosquitoes) promoting change and perseverance. On a backpacking trip that I went on, I had a similar experience, but compounded with the mosquitos was a cold night, a too-small tent, and sounds of bears. That was definitely motivating enough to convince my family that we wouldn't be staying there for the 3 days planned.
ReplyDeleteFear is definitely a powerful persuader, which is interesting, because often fears are irrational. We can create our own set of false 'reasoning' in our minds to convince us that, yes, spiders are going to kill me; yes, trying our for this sport will make a laughing stock. Emotion is a kind of faux rhetoric, if you want to think about it that way.
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