Bitzer, Lloyd. The Rhetorical Situation

Bitzer, Lloyd F. “The Rhetorical Situation” Philosophy and Rheortic, Supplementary Issue.
(1992).
“it does not follow that a situation exists only when the discourse exists” (1).
“Nor should we assume that a rhetorical address gives existence to the situation; on the contrary, it is the situation which calls the discourse into existence.
This makes me wonder what rhetorical situation I’m looking into. I think that the situation changes with each occurrence of guilt rhetoric. In the instance of the conduct book the situation was keeping women in their place. In the instance of ads asking us for monetary help for children is making money?
“It seems clear that rhetoric is situational” (2).
It appears rhetoric is a type of call and response. A situation calls out for recognition or “fixing” and the rhetorician answers with his response to the call.
“Nor would I equate rhetorical situation with persuasive situation, which exists whenever an audience can be changed in belief or action by means of speech” (2).
I don’t understand how this could be. Rhetoric and persuasion work hand in hand, so how do we separate the two, an audience is moved to act, change, become aware, whatever. It is rhetoric.
“I shall argue [that rhetoric] does obtain its character-as-rhetorical from the situation which generates it” (3).
“An act is moral because it is an act performed in a situation of a certain kind; similarly, a work is rhetorical because it is a response to a situation of a certain kind” (3).
“The rhetor alters reality by bringing into existence a discourse of such character that the audience, its thought and action, is so engaged that it becomes mediator of change. In this sense rhetoric is always persuasive” (3-4).
If the audience is women then the change was to become more “ladylike”. If the audience were those who were caught up with the “feed the children” campaigns then the change is to send money to relieve suffering. However, what Bitzer does not address is “fallout” from this type of encouragement to change.
“Rhetorical situation may be defined as a complex of persons, events, objects, and relations presenting an actual or potential exigence which can be completely or partially removed if discourse, introduced into the situation, can so constrain human decision or action as to bring about the significant modification of the exigence (6).
“An exigence which cannot be modified is not rhetorical” (death winter, etc.) (6).
“Further, an exigence which can be modified only by means other than discourse is not rhetorical: thus, an exigence is not rhetorical when its modification requires merely one’s own action or the application of a tool, but neither requires nor invites the assistance of discourse” (6).
“In any rhetorical situation there will be at least one controlling exigence which functions as the organizing principle: it specifies the audience to be addressed and the change to be effected. The exigence may or may not be perceieved clearly by the rhetor or other persons in the situation; it may be strong or weak depending upon the clarity of their perception and the degree of their interest in it; . . .” (7).
The audience is an active party to rhetoric, it isn’t placed upon them, but served to them for them to partake in.
“But the rhetorical audience must be capable of serving as mediator of the change which the discourse functions to produce” (8).
“Besides exigence and audience, every rhetorical situation contains a set of constraints made up of persons, events objects, and relations which are parts of the situation because they have the power to constrain decision and action needed to modify the exigence (8).
Huh?
“There are two main classes of constraints: (1) those originated or managed by the rhetor and his method (Aristotle called these “artistic proofs”), and (2) those other constraints in the situation, which may be operative (Aristotle’s “inartistic proofs)” (8).
So, perhaps guilt played on by the rhetor as apposed to photos that produce guilt?
“Rhetorical discourse is called into existence by situation; the situation which the rhetor perceives amounts to an invitation to create and present discourse” (8).
“Thus the second characteristic of rhetorical situations is that it invites a fitting response, a response that fits the situation”
“To say that a rhetorical response fits a situation is to say it meets the requirements established by the situation” (10).
“The exigence and the complex of persons, objects, events and relations which generate rhetorical discourse are located in reality, are objective and publicly observable historical facts in the world we experience, are therefore available for scrutiny by an observer or critic who attends to them” (11).
“rhetorical situations come into existence, then either mature or decay or mature and persist—conceivably some persist indefinitely” (12).