Manipulated (Jullien instruction 1)

In The Propensity of Things, the way of life, unknown to the Chinese people, is manipulated.

On page 69, Jullien notes: That logic also implies an inherent distrust of words, since words allow a kind of manipulation through rhetoric. But rhetoric involves turning towards other people so that they know what they are getting themselves into when they agree or when they reply in the negative. Rhetoric then also allows a person to be in conflict with what is being argued. They can rebel. This is where Greek democracy was born. Manipulation, not persuasion or rhetoric, is the way that the Chinese acted [it was an art], since it was both an individual and collective behavior towards others. But this pattern of conditioning is so pervasive and "natural" that it never has even become a theoretical discourse in China. They don't think anything of it, even if we on the outside can't help but observe it, because they accept it completely. No one ever thought to investigate its logic

In this paraphrase, I think it's important to note the actual contrast at play here: there is rhetoric and then there is manipulation. Dr. Ulmer mentioned rhetoric/persuasion several times during seminar. The thing is that you can have the most logical and persuasive argument ever, but you're going to keep saying the same thing over and over until you're blue in the face if the person you're trying to persuade won't be. In fact, persuasion will never work unless there is a small kernal of doubt to begin with.

The process of manipulation creates that kernal in the first place. It creates it and fosters it until it grows and there is no need for people going blue in the face. It becomes logic. This is done behind the owner's back, so to speak.

How can we think about this in instructional form? How does it, more importantly relate and allow us a contrast in our understanding of Electracy.

Here is an instruction: using some kind of photo manipulation program, take a "thin" celebrity's face or body and make them "not thin." 

We are used to this type of manipulation, but in reverse. The resulting rhetoric is this: All these people are so perfectly shaped that it is causing a massive population spike of people who suffer from some kind of eating disorder. Reversing the mechanism totally by re-manipulation of the image, but backwards, in the opposite direction, will cause one of two reactions: "OMG, is blah blah blah got so (overweight/fat/obese/...)" or "That picture is NOT real. Someone made it like that." One feels the reality of the image and the other questions it, despite perhaps not questioning it when the celebrity is made to look thinner than they actually are.

Here is an interesting fact: In order to do this, one must use a tool called "liquify." I'll leave the implications to you.