The importance of oratory and the value of rhetoric have emerged as one of this year's leading campaign issues. The power of speech has been venerated by ...
‘On the Wings of Words’ by Barbara Pfeffer Billauer The importance of oratory and the value of rhetoric have emerged as one of this year’s leading campaign issues. The power of speech has been venerated by some of the greatest thinkers, from Aristotle to Miamonides, and its influence demonstrated by some of our greatest leaders - from Churchill to Roosevelt. The effects of the eloquence of Mahatama Ghandi and Abba Eban established them as great statesman, and our own history books memorialize the patriotic contributions of Jefferson (Thomas) and Jordan (Barbara) – through the power of their words and the delivery of their dreams. Words exhort men to war, and cement agreements of peace. They sing us to sleep and greet us in the dawn; they comfort us in sorrow and bolster us in times of danger. Words are the notes, the ingredients of poetry; the stuff that launches flights of mental fancy and ignites ideas that create new worlds. Words are the symbols of human ideals; they are the avatars of our imagination. “The Word!” Isn’t this a name for the Bible? Did not God create the world with words? Isn’t ritual circumcision, the covenant between a Jew and his God, also called The covenant of the Word? So too, words slander, defame and destroy. And dangerous words teach hatred and prejudice and fanaticism. But we also have empty words, and these can be dangerous, too. So much so that warnings have been embodied in slogans and sayings of every culture: Speak little, do much; Put your money where your mouth is; Big Talker; Speak softly but carry a big stick. What concerns me about Mr. Obama is not that he is a good speaker, but that he is not a great speaker. I am troubled, not because he is a compelling orator, but because his speeches are soft on substance, and his messages, however important, may be transitory; elusive as well as illusory. What bothers me is not that he has vague ideas to sell, such as hope or change, but that through these words we get some sense of the person delivering them, and learn that his hopes may not be mine, and that what he wants to change, we may need to keep. We see that, in his judgment, purloined prose or a pilfered phrase is of negligible concern, and discern perhaps, that this is a good politician, but not a great one; a compelling, but not enduring leader; and a pedantic but not creative problem-solver, bereft of imagination and originality.
Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1099085
It is not that Mr Obama delivers his verses with passion and conviction that I oppose, but that we mistake inspiring delivery for great rhetoric. It is not that his lines don’t connect the dots he sketches, but that they don’t even illustrate the claimed familiarity with different cultures, or evidence a breadth of life experience, or a demonstrate a depth of scholarship that would give me some assurance of leadership potential. Would that Cicero had made an appearance in the defense of oratory, as he might have in a response by John F Kennedy. And with all the oratorical acclaim, I would have expected the wit of a newly turned phrase, or the tweak a tortured quote. What saddens me is not the tired rhetoric, but the lapse in attributions. Oh! The sin, sinabulations that he tells, tells tells. But what concerns me most is not that the candidate may be a good talker, but that the candidate may only be a good talker. The question of talking to our enemies has also surfaced as a campaign issue. When past successes have been generated through talent in oratory and eloquence, this becomes a tempting tool with which to deal with the world; especially in trying times or new situations. It is hardly surprising that Mr. Obama feels that engaging that Chavez in conversation will solve, what Obama terms, our “misunderstandings.’ The dangers of misplaced trust in talk therapy are recalled in the tragic effects of Chamberlain’s talks with Hitler. Discerning with whom to speak- with whom to attempt to forge bridges of understanding -- is not a matter of words, it is a matter of judgment. How can it be that Mr. Obama extols the importance of his own words, yet fails to comprehend that those of Rev Wright, are considered the stuff of hate crimes. How can it be that we do not demand that the Senator severs all connection with someone who utters words of treason? How is it that we have not enquired whether Mr. Obama still tithes to Rev. Wright’s church, supporting his words by money or family attendance? Yes, words are very important. But the marks of a great statesman are judgment and deeds. And let us remember, too, that Moses, one of the greatest leaders of them all, was slow of speech.
Barbara Pfeffer Billauer is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Maryland School of Law and President of the Foundation for Law and Science Centers, Inc. Her proposed health care plan was published recently in the Rutger's Journal of Law and Policy, and a solution for immigration reform recently appeared in the Washington Times. Barbara P Billauer 2867 Tilden St NW Washington DC 20008 202 363 1089
Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1099085
