Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” This statement is proven time and time again by David Rothkopf in his Ted Talk about how fear drives America. He describes how fear can motivate a country to make positive changes or cause the country to self-destruct. David’s well thought out claims, intelligent elaboration, knowledge of himself and his audience, and use of rhetoric strategies causes him to be a very successful presenter.
TS: David Rothkopf made the goals of his Ted Talk apparent and was very successful at achieving what he set out to do. The goal of this presentation was to make his audience aware of the problems throughout the U.S that are failed to be mentioned by the leaders of …show more content…
Rothkopf appeals to logos, pathos, and ethos, in order to reach his goals. He uses logical appeal by including statistics to back up his claims. While talking about how much technology is used he talks about how The Economist stated that, “Eighty percent of the people on the planet, by the year 2020, would have a smartphone” (Rothkopf 7:00). He also mentions that there are more cellphones than there are people on Earth as of last October (Rothkopf 7:19). David appeals to his audience's ethical appeal by mentioning that he is an author and interviewed over 150 people about their views and feelings on this topic (Rothkopf 14:45). After telling his audience that he will be talking about fear, he says “ I would like you to feel comfortable with my doing that by letting you know that I know something about fear and anxiety. I'm a Jewish guy from New Jersey” (Rothkopf 0:11). He says this not only to lighten the mood, but also to make his seem more credible. David also uses emotional appeal while talking about the dangers of technology.He describes how a terrorist in Sydney terrorized people and posted videos of it online (Rothkopf 9:52). This would cause the audience to sympathize for those people and feel a little frightened. Mr.Rothkopf mentions that he is Jewish (Rothkopf 0:30) and lives in Washington (Rothkopf 15:56), both of which will cause some members of the audience to feel a connection with him and or empathize with his life