Popular Culture Review Vol. 11, No. 1, February 2000 | Page 152

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Popular Culture Review

Third, synthesis enhances persuasion because the style and substance of the
synthesis are attractive to many people on both sides of the controversy, people
often caught between the appeal of opposing sides, many in the middle, or the
undecided.
Finally, synthesis is attractive because it offers an alternative to debate. The
rhetor does not ask the audience to accept a compromise that satisfies neither side.
Rather, the rhetor provides an option not previously apparent in the controversy.
Neither side sees its original position subservient to an opponent’s position. In a
sense, synthesis dwarfs the original issues in the dispute in light of a larger concept.
F. S. C. Northrop (1946), professor of philosophy at Yale, argued that “the
most important ideological conflict confronting our world is the one rendered
inescapable by the major event of our time — the meeting of East and West. Within
the all-embracing and deep-going issues raised by this momentous occurrence, the
other ideological conflicts of our world are partial components (p. x). Hanh (1995)
says tersely: “until there is peace between religions, there can be no peace in the
world” (1995, p. 2). Robert Elwood (1974), focusing on Japan and the United
States, observed: “One of the great facts of the twentieth century has been the
discovery by Japan and the United States that, as remote from each other as they
may seem in the past, they are now neighbors across the Pacific. From now on, the
destiny of each is inseparably linked to the other. In tragic conflict, as major trading
partners, as increasingly equal world powers, the two lands have been bound
together like twins, each of whom — despite of or even because of occasional
bitterness — can never forget, nor even live without the other (p. 1).
Even as we see deep divisions between and among religious groups, the
synthetic impulse continues to express itself. A recent Chronicle o f Higher Education
article by Diane Winston noted that the synthetic impulse is growing on campuses
and may be a bell weather sign of things to come. (Winston, p. A-60) She noted
that while conducting research on work and spirituality, she asked recent college
graduates what their religious preference was. The students reply: “Methodist,
Taoist, Native American, Quaker, Russian Orthodox, and Jew. A less eclectic
combination are the self described “Jewboos” (Jews who practice Buddhist
meditation).
A study o f religious choices on the University of Houston campus indicated a
growing interest in such exotic faiths as Baha’i, Tibetan Buddhism, Hinduism, and
Zoroastrianism. Yet, the pull of Eastern religions on the Western mind has a rich
and varied history as has the Eastern attraction to the Western mind.

The Eastern Cultural Setting
As American and European audiences have been attracted to Eastern traditions,
Eastern audiences have been attracted to the Western branches of Christianity.