from “yes we can” to “yes i can”
Stanley Fish, literary theorist and guru of all things postmodern, wrote a very interesting analysis piece for the New York Times last week. His article gives clarity to something has been nagging at me, and no doubt others as well, every time I hear Obama speak. Examining speeches the president has given since being inaugurated, Fish notes that Obama’s rhetorical use of the cohortative first-person plural (as in “Yes we can!”) and the inspirational second person (as in “This is your victory), has become an incessant and imperial first-person singular (as in “I instructed my Secretary of the Treasury”). He writes
No doubt this pattern of pronouns reflects a reality. By all the evidence we have, the guy’s completely in charge, making decisions, giving instructions, deploying resources, assigning tasks — a combination point guard, quarterback and clean-up hitter. And if he gets results, as he seems to be doing, that’s O.K.
But it may not be O.K., as a matter of rhetoric and politics, to advertise it. An occasional passive construction to soften the claim of agency would be a good idea (even though the grammar books warn against it). It’s one thing to be calling the tune; it’s another to proclaim it in every sentence. Someone is going to say, “Am I the only one who thinks that Obama likes the sound of his own voice?”
Of course we all like the sound of our own voices. The trick , which Obama will probably learn down the road, is to avoid making it too obvious.
