The capacity of good oratory to change people’s thinking
Presidential election campaigns are great opportunities for oratory, and for the world to potentially see future leaders use public speaking and the bully pulpit to pull in the votes.
With Toastmasters Week from October 24 to November 6, it is timely to see how important being able to command an audience, to be an effective communicator and speak with confidence is viewed.
Until the intervention of First Lady Michelle Obama, speech making in the United States election campaign had been uninspiring, and in Donald Trump’s case verging on the ugly, but with orator-in-chief Barack Obama campaigning in Hillary Clinton’s corner the chances are we will hear something special either before polling day or in the leadup to inauguration day when Obama’s term ends.
On his own historic election night in 2008 president-elect Obama referenced another spellbinding orator, the civil rights leader Martin Luther King, picking up his popular phrase ‘‘the arc of history’’ to help convey his own momentous achievement.
Repetition has also played its part in presidential debates, with episodes from the late 1980s and early 1990s giving insight into how this simple rhetorical device can powerfully convey or rebut an argument.
It was put to devastating effect when Republican vice-presidential nominee Dan Quayle dared to compare his age and experience for the job with the martyred president John F Kennedy.
His counterpart, Democratic vice-presidential nominee Lloyd Bentsen, chose his few words in response carefully to demolish the comparison.
‘‘I knew Jack Kennedy, Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. You, sir, are no Jack Kennedy.’’
Four years later at the 1992 Republican convention, when former president Ronald Reagan spoke, he memorably and hilariously invoked that same response by poking fun at his own advanced age.
Commenting on Democratic nominee Bill Clinton’s conviction that he shared many of the same traits as 18th-century American founding father Thomas Jefferson, Reagan’s previous career as an actor mischievously emerged.
‘‘This fellow calls himself the new Thomas Jefferson,’’ Reagan said in reference to Clinton.
‘‘ Well, I knew Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson was a friend of mine,’’ and as the laughter threatened to drown out the punchline, he had to shout, ‘‘You, sir, are no Thomas Jefferson!’’
In each of these cases we see examples of the classic techniques that enhance a person’s speechmaking ability, such as triads where ideas, adjectives, points or, in this case, the name, are grouped in threes.
Many future leaders first learn such techniques and to speak with confidence at Toastmasters, an organisation that operates under the moniker ‘‘where leaders are made’’.
A typical toastmasters meeting includes members trying everything from selecting a word of the day, to impromptu speaking, to introducing speakers to evaluating speeches.
Using self-paced experiential learning, club members steadily work their way through manuals that highlight the importance of listening, of thinking on your feet, building organisational skills, and giving and receiving constructive feedback based on commendations and recommendations.
In this way members learn how to develop, express and convince others of your ideas and along the way develop communication and leadership skills.
Toastmasters not only teaches you how to communicate effectively, it also shows when not to talk, to exercise the power of the pause, use the silence for suspense, to let the audience think or applaud and laugh.
For, above all, Toastmasters is about enjoying the experience of communicating and with more than 40 clubs in the capital, Wellington is now one of the most toastmastered cities in the world.
New Zealand has a total of 282 clubs – all showing members how to develop skills appreciated in many situations, from family occasions such as weddings, to boardroom presentations to the campaign trail, whether that be at local body or even presidential level.
Paul Mulrooney is the area director for Toastmasters Wellington breakfast clubs.