Not far off...
Posted on 01/16/2017 2:00:12 PM PST by heterosupremacist
We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender . . .
Fine structure. powerful imagery, delivered in a voice full of certitude = great oratory.
We are missing that in the 21st century. Our current crop of leaders seem unable to find poetry in their texts, or even to purposely include it.
Whether this is because there is something lacking within them or because they believe their audiences too uneducated to appreciate a well-struck image or relate to metaphor, I cannot say.
Our national leaders are all highly credentialed people, but I am not sure that is the same thing as being broadly educated.
(Excerpt) Read more at aleteia.org ...
Critics got wee weed up?
If I recall correctly, in 2008 I saw a fancy hardcover book in a bookstore with a grandiose title like: “Great Speeches of the Twentieth Century”.
The book had a big picture of some black guy on it. He was running for president that year. At the time, he didn’t even had a Nobel Prize. But, clearly, he was a better speechifier than Churchill, JFK, Reagan, MLK, or anyone else in the past 100 years.
You can always tell a speech by 0bama that wasn’t written by someone else when he goes all “I I I I Me Me Me, Er Er Er, Um Um Um” and the MSMLSD goes nuts over how eloquent that was.
Teleprompter free
....and saying “ta” instead of to
Well “Ta” is Aussie for “Bye” but I get what you’re saying.
MLK was a Baptist/Christian preacher whose every-single-speech was a sermon on Christian themes, and who used the Bible for reference and for evidence of his assertions.
The Left ignores that completely. He will be a hollow plaster icon until people recognize this and return his Christian ideology.
Great oratory is not necessarily good oratory ...
Adolph Hitler (for example) was a great orator ... and hideously evil.
Great article, thanks for posting.
Today’s leaders are reduced to ‘sound bytes’. As a civilization, we are losing our language and the poetry of faith, future dreams, fulfilment.
Good inspirational speakers understand the import of well known literary phrases; speeches do not need to be ‘original’ - they should, however, reflect the beliefs and aspirations of the speaker and the audience. (with reference - no plagiarism)
Yeah...and “thanks” in England. It took me months
and a lot of weird looks to drop my British slang
after a three year tour there in early 70’s
Not far off...
Talk is cheap and no substitute for action.
Having spent several years in Oz my fam and friends still say I have an Aussie accent albeit mild, then too, I lapse into Aussie strine from time to time such as “can I borrow your ‘whatever’ for a tick?”
Did they not sometime cry, ‘all hail!’ to me?
So Judas did to Christ: but he, in twelve,
Found truth in all but one: I, in twelve thousand, none. —Richard II
MLK was not great because he was a great orator, but because he spoke the truth... john Lewis was and is spouting lies
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