"Words. Words when spoken out loud for the sake of performance are music. They have rhythm and pitch and timbre and volume. These are the properties of music and music has the ability to find us and move us and lift us up in ways that literal meaning can't."
Aaron Sorkin, via Jed Bartlet on The West Wing
When the fictional President in the television series, The West Wing, utters these lines, through him, Aaron Sorkin is exhorting all those with a platform and an audience to not only choose their words carefully, but also deliver those words with the oratorical skills due to them. And, of course, I agree with him. Through out history, the men and women that have a mastery over the collective consciousness have always been those that can articulate themselves with force and charisma. More than 60 years after he said it, we can still remember Nehru saying "the light has gone out of our lives, and there is darkness everywhere". More than 40 years after he was killed we are still moved by Martin Luther King saying "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."
The greatest speakers of their time were also the most influential, and not by conincidence. Adolf Hitler, John F. Kennedy, Winston Churchill, all men of great force of presence, all great orators, and each of them the most influential of their generation. It has come to pass that Barack Obama will go down in history to be such a man. His address to the Democratic National Convention in 2004 managed to catapult him into the highest office in his country within a matter 4 years. The speech was a masterly retelling of his life, used as a metaphor for the American condition and the American dream. If that speech propelled him into international spotlight, then all his public appearances since then have managed to make him President. Which is why his speech at his inauguration was the most anticipated moment in politics, in recent times.
Now, you may not know from the slaughter of the English language that was perpetrated by W, but Americans have a great tradition of Presidents also being great public speakers, and their inaugurals have provided the platform for some of the greatest speeches of the 20th century. My personal favourite was JFK's speech, which produced that famous line, "ask not what your country can do for you-ask what you can do for your country." Unfortunately for me, and all those watching in earnest, Barack Obama's speech was not pure fiery oratory, chock full of great quotes like the one above. It was, however, a speech for it's time, brilliantly delivered.
With the world's eyes upon him, Obama made a speech that was many things at once. It was a spotlight on America's troubles, it was a forceful rebuke of the previous administration, it was a call to arms for a nation full of people eager to pitch in, and it was a powerful reminder that change had indeed arrived. My favourite part was when he said "As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals." That will probably go down in the history textbooks.
So, here's the thing, I am enamoured of him, and of his speech, and quite possibly his young speechwriter, whose pictures lead me to believe that he is rather attractive, but mostly I am enamoured of the fact that he has brought back into international focus, the power of having the attention of an audience. That, my friends, is truly spectacular.
No comments:
Post a Comment