A Loss of Perspective: an Analysis of “Sex and Death and the Rational World of Defense Intellectuals.”

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A Loss of Perspective: An Analysis of “Sex and Death and the Rational World of Defense Intellectuals.” In the essay, “Sex Death and the Rational World of Defense Intellectuals”, the writer, Carol Cohn, discusses her observations of the effects of language choice on thoughts and actions regarding the dangerous world of nuclear defense. The text explores the use of abstract language to mask the horrible consequences of nuclear war. While Cohn begins her essay by analyzing examples of this language of nuclear combat, she quickly becomes immersed in the world of defense jargon and losses the focus of the essay. The main rhetorical aim of this essay is unclear and shifts as the thesis of the essay changes. The use of ethos persuasion is observed extensively in the first half of the essay. Cohn establishes her authority on the subject by describing her “year immersed in the world of defense intellectuals” (216). She establishes herself as a well informed student of US defense strategists with the aim of understanding how they think. The language used is clear and informative with little appeal to emotion. This mirrors the subject matter as Cohn discusses the use of language such as “collateral damage” (217) to refer to human death. In this sense, the speaker’s voice builds on the feeling of being removed from the gravity of so much destruction that defense language aims to accomplish. Examples of this defense language are plentiful in the text but their purposes are mixed and not fully realized. Cohn explores the use of sexual language revolving around nuclear war by interpreting comments such as “thrust-to-weight ratio” (218) as a means of conveying the masculine need for power that the possession of nuclear arms represents. Another quote, “pat the missile” (219) is interpreted in the sexual context, but also as a way of “minimizing the seriousness of militarist

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