Senator Knucklehead goes South South West
"Great indeed is the admiration aroused by an eloquent and wise speaker, whose hearers judge him wiser, and more understanding, too, than the rest. And if in such a speech there is also weightiness blended with modesty, then no achievement can be more admirable; and all the more so if these qualities are found in a young man." - Cicero, On Duties, 2.48 (ed. Griffin and Atkins)
Many have argued that the 20th century sound-bite, brought into American homes via the television, killed oratory. Whereas Lincoln produced the Gettysburg Address and Washington delivered his famous Second Inaugural, modern leaders strive only to utter one sentence or two that the media will repeat ad nauseum. Hence, the oratorical success of today is to beat a phrase into constituents' heads.
Despite the television's assault on the human brain and the evidence that it turns one's brain to spiceless gazpacho, people have not totally become unthinking, unfeeling beings. Thus, politicians still must tour, greet people, and when called to do so, speak to more than just a harem of television cameras and snappily dressed reporters. Voters still expect to hear leaders in the flesh.
Senator George Allen learned a vicious lesson about the sound-bite. While it needs only to burrow in your brain for success, it can also step outside, grab you by the trouser leg and slam you mercilessly to the ground, over and over again. According to an article in The Washington Post, Allen, speaking to a crowd in southwestern Virginia, ridiculed his opponent's volunteer employee and uttered the word "macaca" while publicly addressing the young man, SR Sidarth. Sidarth, an American of Indian descent, took umbrage with the statement. His opponent, James Webb, accused Allen of rascism. Allen retorted he meant no offense, and he then listed several excuses for using the term.
No one, including Allen, can say for sure what exactly he intended. Herein lies the problem, in three possibilities: either Senator Allen made a rascist comment in public about another person; or he equated the term "macaca" to Mr. Sidarth's hairstyle, a mullet; or he delivered a speech in which he did not know the meaning of the word he used. When compared to the quotation above from the Roman senator, Cicero, all three of these possibilities reveal a major failure of a leader.
First, if he intended to belittle a citizen based on race, Senator Allen is foolish and mean. His remarks stir only the nasty to laugh and the level-headed to turn away. If he tried to make "macaca" sound like "mohawk," he proves he cannot speak eloquently. We are, after all, what we say, and eloquence and precision of language counts. If he does not know the meaning of the words that he says, then he is ignorant. All leave little to celebrate for a leader of the state and the nation.
Cicero wants the leaders, both old and young, of a republic to realize that words reflect character. Weightiness implies wisdom; modesty implies humility. No matter how fast human lives become, people still value these qualities. On the day when the census reminds that in Washington and elsewhere new hopefuls immigrated here by the thousands and have now become millions of residents, Senator Allen should note that voters still want their best emotions stirred. People will vote for more than just a sound-bite, Senator, but they will reject the unadmired and unwise.
Many have argued that the 20th century sound-bite, brought into American homes via the television, killed oratory. Whereas Lincoln produced the Gettysburg Address and Washington delivered his famous Second Inaugural, modern leaders strive only to utter one sentence or two that the media will repeat ad nauseum. Hence, the oratorical success of today is to beat a phrase into constituents' heads.
Despite the television's assault on the human brain and the evidence that it turns one's brain to spiceless gazpacho, people have not totally become unthinking, unfeeling beings. Thus, politicians still must tour, greet people, and when called to do so, speak to more than just a harem of television cameras and snappily dressed reporters. Voters still expect to hear leaders in the flesh.
Senator George Allen learned a vicious lesson about the sound-bite. While it needs only to burrow in your brain for success, it can also step outside, grab you by the trouser leg and slam you mercilessly to the ground, over and over again. According to an article in The Washington Post, Allen, speaking to a crowd in southwestern Virginia, ridiculed his opponent's volunteer employee and uttered the word "macaca" while publicly addressing the young man, SR Sidarth. Sidarth, an American of Indian descent, took umbrage with the statement. His opponent, James Webb, accused Allen of rascism. Allen retorted he meant no offense, and he then listed several excuses for using the term.
No one, including Allen, can say for sure what exactly he intended. Herein lies the problem, in three possibilities: either Senator Allen made a rascist comment in public about another person; or he equated the term "macaca" to Mr. Sidarth's hairstyle, a mullet; or he delivered a speech in which he did not know the meaning of the word he used. When compared to the quotation above from the Roman senator, Cicero, all three of these possibilities reveal a major failure of a leader.
First, if he intended to belittle a citizen based on race, Senator Allen is foolish and mean. His remarks stir only the nasty to laugh and the level-headed to turn away. If he tried to make "macaca" sound like "mohawk," he proves he cannot speak eloquently. We are, after all, what we say, and eloquence and precision of language counts. If he does not know the meaning of the words that he says, then he is ignorant. All leave little to celebrate for a leader of the state and the nation.
Cicero wants the leaders, both old and young, of a republic to realize that words reflect character. Weightiness implies wisdom; modesty implies humility. No matter how fast human lives become, people still value these qualities. On the day when the census reminds that in Washington and elsewhere new hopefuls immigrated here by the thousands and have now become millions of residents, Senator Allen should note that voters still want their best emotions stirred. People will vote for more than just a sound-bite, Senator, but they will reject the unadmired and unwise.
posted by Henry Plantagenet at 7:11 AM
2 Comments:
Senator Knucklehead has updated classical rhetorical tools for the soundbite era. His macaca comment was an intentional rhetorical jab, a verbal kidney punch of a sound-bite while he winked at his audience over the shoulder of his young victim. Allen wanted to signal to his white, conservative, rural supporters that he was one with them, a fellow Knight of the White Camelia, in defending white racial identity against dark-skinned people. Even a knucklehead knows he can't say THAT out loud. But Allen is a pol who wants to convince everyone he is addressing at the moment that he is one of them, and that he opposes those they oppose. So he uses a weird word, a sneer and a pointed finger to deliver his racist message to his local audience. This is the same technique as the coyly folded confederate flag on a shelf in the Allen campaign commercial. Both techniques deliver content through context, maybe a "sight-bite" instead of a sound-bite. And the content is aimed at the base. It is cynical racial politics to the core. Allen is not so knuckleheaded as hard hearted. Did he demonstrate leadership? Only if the definition includes provoking a lynching. Allen's comment and behavior, along with his confederate flag fetish and his nicely tied noose, show he probably can run a pretty good lynching. Fortunately, though, a young man's video and the Internet let Virginia and the rest of the country know that Allen has no business leading either in the Senate or in the White House.
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