Re: "The American People"

Conrad,

Jon Stewart can explain it better than I can:
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-may-5-2010/american-apparently

The phrase is interesting rhetorically because it can be used  
grammatically in the plural (to avoid fascist overtones) while  
functionally in the singular (to imply unity.)

"High vigilance" is a difficult phrase to make sense of so we don't  
want to confuse foreigners with it. As The Daily Show points out, The  
American People "get it" (and, by implication, you un-American people  
don't.)

Gunnar
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On May 30, 2010, at 3:44 AM, Conrad Taylor wrote:

> This is a Transatlantic question about the interface between
> information and rhetoric, from a puzzled Englishman, or should that
> be a Brit. (I happen to live within both Venn circles.)
>
> On our radio news, I often hear verbatim inclusions of statements
> made by American public figures; for example I have heard quite a lot
> in recent days from President Obama on the oil spill disaster, and I
> am also thinking about an event not so long ago where there was said
> to be a threat of another terror attack in New York. On these
> occasions, reference is often made to what "The American People" are
> thinking, or doing, or feeling, or should be feeling, thinking or  
> doing.
>
> Often these references to "The American People" occur in contexts
> where the limited circle this sketches is counter-productive. For
> example I was bemused to hear a public official stating that "The
> American People" should remain in a high state of vigilance and that
> Americans should inform the authorities of anything that might
> indicate preparations for a terror attack in New York.
>
> I thought that was an odd turn of phrase because New York on any
> given day must have hundreds of thousands of non-Americans on the
> streets. Aren't the authorities interested in having those people
> also being vigilant? And, if appropriate, reporting suspicious
> activities to the authorities?
>
> Or is it, as I suspect, that references to "The American People" is a
> rhetorical speech-tick, the purpose of which is to make the speaker
> sound patriotic and therefore Good, and the tick has become so well
> established that it bursts forth automatically when it is unnecessary
> and even, as I say, potentially counter-productive?
>
> Thanks in advance for comment,
>
> Conrad
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