2 thoughts on Kennedy
First, this article brings to mind an idea that has long perplexed me. Why does a poorly delivered, great speech seem less effective than a well delivered, average speech?
Kennedy says,"The faculty of rhetoric, more than anything else in nature, is probably responsible for the development of individual personality, and thus in the highest forms of animal life, of a sense of selfhood. The basic reason for this is that rhetoric is expressive of the integrity of the individual."
This helps explain why (at least to me) the quality of a speech is determined by the quality of the presentation almost as much as the quality of the actual words spoken. It seems that our nature inherently prefers the quality of a speech that is delivered by a individual of integrity. (at least if I can claim that personal integrity has a correlation to speech quality in the eyes of the audience).
Second, feral pigs and immature elephants.
"Among higher animals,
rhetorical skills are transmitted culturally by imitation and leaming,
not genetically"
I was watching a TV show about wild pigs the other day, and it mentioned that pigs, when they escape, can turn feral really quickly. This was really surprising to me. So I googled 'feral pigs' and Wikipedia told me that all sorts of animals can go feral if they escape the other herd. Then I thought about what Kennedy said about rhetorical skills being transmitted "culturally by imitation and learning" and I wondered if the feral pigs are just pigs who started to forget the rhetoric of the herd (or flock or whatever masses of pigs are called).
Then I started to think about this other nature show I watched about young elephants who were raised without parent elephants on a nature preserve. When these elephants reach adolescents they start acting like total 'shits' and pick fights and attack other animals and people. They become out of control teenage elephants, because they do not have older elephants there to tell them what to do and how to act. Again it seems that there is a rhetoric missing for these animals which, is normally provided by the elders. It's almost as if elephants legendary docility is a learned behavioral rhetoric from older elephants. What do y'all think?
As far as the pigs go, I wonder whether that type of swift development stems from necessity or the unlearning of the herd rhetoric. Basically, is it genetic or rhetoric? The main issue would be whether a lone pig adapts fast or not (as in, is it communicating and learning from other pigs or not). I definitely think that there is a rhetoric at work in the elephants, however. Without the older elephants to teach and threaten the younger ones to behave properly, they just default to doing whatever comes to them first in search of personal gain instead of for the good of the herd as "normal" raised elephants would.
ReplyDeleteWith regard to your first point, I’m not sure I necessarily agree with your claim that poor content with good delivery is more effective than good content with poor delivery. I’ve definitely heard both sides of the debate. The pro-delivery proponents would argue: “if your delivery is good enough, it doesn’t matter what you’re saying, you’ll still blow your audience away.” The pro-content proponents, by contrast, would argue: “if your content is fantastic, it doesn’t matter how you say it—you can stutter all you want—people will still listen to you.” There are clearly examples of effective speakers on both sides.
ReplyDeleteListening to a great speaker talk about nothing for an hour is pleasant and powerful, but that speaker probably wouldn’t persuade an audience of critics. Listening to a horrible speaker talk about something important is boring to the masses (they’d probably fall asleep before being persuaded), but persuasive to the experts and critics.
I suppose if you really wanted to be effective, you’d prepare good content and master good delivery.
Brian, I wasn't necessarily trying to say that good delivery trumps good content, but I was trying to say that it can be as effective. But yeah like you say good content plus masterful delivery is the optimal (at least rhetorically)
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