People speak in a variety of ways across the globe, ranging from literal to sarcastic. For what is spoken to be understood, one must know how they are speaking, otherwise things will be confusing and misunderstood. In the book “The Future of Life”, written by Edward O. Wilson, the ways of how environmentalists and people-first debates are carried out are brought to the surface. These two sides ironically have similarities in format and childish manner, which are both seen throughout the satirical workings of Wilson.
First off, Wilson implements a point that brings out the false, deceptive thinking of both groups on the problem at hand. For example, the people-first advocates claim that if a person “relaxes their guard” when the environmentalists would possibly be in power, their “property rights will go down the tube.” This shows that there is no applicability to environmentalist ideologies, nor any appeal to their true goals, which can be seen throughout the arguments against the environmentalists. The same exact method is used on the other side to show the back and forth way of argument without any real support. Wilson says that the people-first advocates’ idea of conservation is “planting trees around a golf course”, which of course, has no true support for it to be viewed as real. There is also no information or facts within the statements, just the truth about how both sides argue. These features alone provide little impact on the issue, but Wilson does so anyway by writing opposing arguments that are ironically the same. Secondly, besides the use of misleading thinking and arguments without backing, Wilson brings up another widely-used method of argument from this discussion. In this case, it is how both sides use more of emotional appeals for the argument rather than statistics or fact-based support. The use of pathos over logos shows in Wilson’s diction