The First Rule of Kairos: Don't Talk About Kairos

Think about how many times in the past week you were told to seek an opportunity.  Maybe you were told to attend the Career Fair, to audition for a dance team, or to just talk to someone new.  No one hesitates to tell you that these opportunities may only come around every so often and therefore we must grab them while we can.

However, we often forget that this idea of seeking opportunities while they are available is a crucial part of rhetoric. Perhaps the reason we forget about kairos, the idea of seizing rhetorical opportunity, is because it is an instinctive part of how we write and speak.  We grow up learning when to ask for things and when it is best to hold our tongue without being explicitly being told to do so.  

Although kairos is applied arguably more advantageously in formal rhetoric than everyday speech, it is still an instinct. Say an event occurs that sparks controversy.  It is simply natural to discuss this point further, as it is currently relevant in not only the mind of the author or speaker, but the minds of the audience as well.  Although this is an implementation of kairos, we did not necessarily go looking for the opportunity.  No one had to tell us to seize the moment because it was instinctive.  

Something important happened.  Let's talk about it.  Natural kairos, those opportunities in rhetoric that occur by situation rather than creation go almost unnoticed because there is no need to think about it. 

Why then, do we feel deceived by a kairos that arises from our own creation?  We are told so often to seize opportunities outside of rhetoric, but when it comes to our writing or speaking, it feels deceptive to recognize an opportunity and use it advantageously to prove a point.  When Donald Trump brings up his political ideas out of nowhere, it shows that he has his own agenda versus that of a politician discussing policy regarding a current event that is fresh in the minds of the people.  Perhaps the reason this feels deceptive is the mechanical feel it conveys, rather than the natural instinct that comes with seizing an already given opportunity.  To avoid coming off as deceptive, no one tells us to go seek an opportunity to say what we want to say.  Instead it is more common to hold our ideas until there is a kairotic moment in which it is simply instinctive to make the argument.