All rhetorical roads lead to Aristotle. That was my belief until I met Michel Foucault. His theory of language and power is fascinating and frightening. His ideas break with millennia of rhetorical tradition, challenging the very foundation and essence of our understanding of communication. My favorite class of this semester was when we discussed Foucault and Derrida. Their work, specifically Foucault’s, gave me a new perspective on power and communication. Over the last few weeks, I have had numerous conversations about these theories. They seem to synthesize many elusive and unshaped thoughts in my mind. Yet, I am still chewing on the extent of their validity. One example of how their theories have given me a new paradigm is the way I think about VMI and other authorities. What gives VMI its power? How does public discourse and value judgments give power? Are established organizations ( governments, medical doctors, and/or VMI) wielding this power justly? What keeps the people from withholding the very power the establishment needs to survive? All of these questions have passed through my mind and been tossed about in conversation. And I do not know the answers. But, over the last few weeks, I have been reading and watching interviews of Derrida, Foucault, and Chomsky, weighing their arguments. I am excited to see where my investigation leads, and how post-modern ideas relate to the history of rhetoric. Can Foucault be traced to Aristotle? Can deterministic theories which deny the possibility of true communication and self expression be reconciled with a traditional view of rhetoric that has remained relatively constant for thousands of years? I do not have the answers…Yet.