dingodan
New member
- Feb 16, 2011
- 10,080
Not the individual I had in mind when I made the comment, but certainly a great orator, so definitely important to evaluate the content of his speeches too.
Definitely the first person who came to mind for me when I read you post, it was him or Blair.
To be honest though, warnings about great orators are a bit of a cheat. Lost an argument? It wasn't that my ideas weren't as good as his, he was just such a great orator that his ideas seemed better. I'm not sure I can agree entirely. I do agree that you need to be weary of great orators, and of emotional impact, but only in so far as you don't let yourself be distracted from the substance of what they are saying.
Whether a person has good delivery or not, good ideas, and bad ideas, stand or fall on their own merits. Brexit won the day, the "greatest orator" for that was Nigel Farage, and I'm pretty sure his arguments didn't win out because people were bowled over by his oratory skill or emotional impact. A good or bad idea expressed clearly can overcome the shortcomings, or skill, of the person speaking, what you really want to watch out for is an idea expressed with vagueness and abstraction.