[lit-ideas] Re: Bush's press conference
- From: John McCreery <mccreery@xxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2004 12:42:54 +0900
On 2004/04/15, at 12:31, Scribe1865@xxxxxxx wrote:
> However if we equate leadership in general with eloquence, mere
> leadership,
> amoral and powerful leadership, the ability to mobilize people
> stripped of our
> judgment of leadership's ends -- isn't there a correlation between
> eloquence
> and leadership?
It's an interesting question, but one complicated by the fact that a
leader who is eloquent in writing may not be eloquent at all when he
speaks. According to Jonathan Ellis, whose biography _Thomas Jefferson:
American Sphinx_, I have been reading, this was the case for Jefferson,
who (today's factoid) wound up drafting the Declaration of Independence
because, while his writing was admired, he didn't, in John Adam's
words, "say three sentences" in the debates that led up to the
Declaration, which was, at the moment it was written, seen as a largely
pro forma accompaniment to serious issues already decided.
On the other side of the spectrum, there are plenty of corporate and
government leaders who are verbally inarticulate. One remembers, for
example, General, then Secretary of State, Alexander Haig, whose
malapropisms were, if anything, worse than GWB's.
Cheers,
John L. McCreery
The Word Works, Ltd.
55-13-202 Miyagaya, Nishi-ku
Yokohama, Japan 220-0006
Tel 81-45-314-9324
Email mccreery@xxxxxxx
"Making Symbols is Our Business"
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