From the podium

Speaking isn’t just a quality, but an ability to instil one’s thoughts in many minds. To be exact, speaking is an art that isn’t born with people. One must toil day and night to get it under control. 

There are certain people who have excelled this art. Every one of these speakers isn’t just emulators of other better speakers, but a designer of his/her own dogma of speaking tactics. The enigmatic appearance of this priceless art makes it insurmountable, but some live examples stand in front of us who literally reached the acme of eloquence. Knowing about them is the least we could do, to pay our tribute.

Hitler

Hitler is one classic template of oration. He is one of the greatest orator history has ever seen. Hitler’s speeches were really overwhelmingly powerful, that they frighten even the Jewish coffins.  His party hardly won more than 3% of votes in 1924 elections. He understood the importance of public speaking. 

According to him, every great movement on Earth owes its growth to great speakers. He toiled deep into his nights, writing his speeches. He gradually grew up; He delivered nearly five thousand persuasive speeches; Hitler took over the country, conquered a dozen other nations as well, slaughtered 21 million people, thereby building the largest German empire in a span of just 12 years.

Hitler writes his own speech. He worships the art of speaking in such a way that he didn’t trust anyone else to write his speech for him or influence his ideas. He had five stenographers to feed the writings directly into type writers, after five pedantic reviews by himself.

Hitler’s voice was mesmeric. He could continuously speak for six hours, without losing the attention of the audience. He drew masses towards him and his viewpoint, and made them stay with that forever. He convinced the Germans that his governing system will reign for 1000 years. Hitler convinced the people to slaughter their own neighbours, the Jews. Such was the power of this man’s words.   

Hitler was an architect himself. He wasn’t influenced by anyone. He designed his one political system, which could not exist without him. He had his ‘own’ in everything he did. He aesthetically prepared his public act. He used to add animations, acting and much more to his speech, with the gestures and words that usual speakers deliver. He used to rehearse his every speech in front of a mirror.

There are universities teaching his rhetoric as a course even today. Every progress he dreamt of and the flourishment he brought died with him when he committed suicide in his secret bunker. The Third Reich was officially brought to an end without the living model of the Fuhrer and his oration.

Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill is a notable personality during the Second World War. His stirring speech gave him the fame of arousing millions and take them back to the Golden English era. To be particular, his war time speeches during the darkest days of war stood as a chance for the British soldiers to fight. He believed in the unimaginable power of speeches. Let’s google it, for instance. Just reading the glimpses of his top ten speeches will leave us with Goosebumps.

Right from his first speech, he has begun to magnetize masses. In war times, speaking what the people wanted to hear is tougher task than said. But doing tougher tasks makes a Hero.  

Churchill put politics aside in his speeches and spoke for the welfare of fellow Englishmen. At one point of time, the House of the Commons and the entire England itself started to believe whatever Churchill said from the podium, and he never deceived their belief. The concept of Churchillian optimism revolved around in every word he uttered.

Churchill’s speech was a stirring feature especially when the battle of Britain reached was at its crisis point. He established that the victory of the Great Britain only can bring about the survival of the same. His speeches were foundation for the establishment of the European Union.

Churchill too wasn’t a born orator, but the one who tirelessly built his own craft in due course. He wrote is speeches. No one knew when he sleeps and when he works. Such a hard worker he is. He believed that if a man’s oratory is powerful enough, he would become an independent force, drawing all others towards him. He not only said that a speech should be brought to a climax with waves and sounds filled with the vivid pictures of optimism, but also vectored in displaying the same in his speeches.  

Socrates

As many of already know, relentless questioning nature of Socrates led him to his end. Shortly after his historic scene describing Euthyphro, Socrates was accused by Meletus and others as a corrupter of youth and a non-believer of the God of the state. They brought him to trial. The day arrived and Socrates was standing in front of the jury consisting of five hundred Athenians. The speech he delivered there was legendary, as described by Plato, in his work The Apology. The speech was fantabulous because it not only summarized his entire life but also displayed his immense devotion towards philosophical questioning.

Socrates was so much emotionally attached towards his ‘fellow Athenians’ and so he wasn’t prepared to contradict any decision of the jury. He gave his reasons and expressed his doubts about the reasons behind such accusations. He started with an attractive note of sarcasm, “I don’t know, my dear Athenians, how much have you been moved by my accusers. I must admit they spoke very persuasively, that even I forgot who I was. But they hardly pronounced a word of truth”. He continued with a story about his search for a wiser man than himself, to establish his point, ‘Only God is wiser’, which ultimately shattered the accusation about his belief in Gods.

 He aroused the masses to question everything. He instilled that the wisdom of any man truly worth nothing and only the quest of wisdom fetches the same. His entire speech was built around one strong point, which says, ‘A good man doesn’t count on his living or dying; He continues to ask himself what he does is right or wrong’. He presented his testimony but the blinkered jury decided to put him to death. He whole-heartedly accepted the judgement, saying “The hour of departure has arrived at last; let’s go our ways — I to die, and you to live. Which is better God only knows.” Artist may die; Art stays forever. His speeches were later construed properly, which evoked people to revolt and put an end to the tyranny of the then monarchy.

I extend my humble apologies to many more speakers about whom we didn’t discuss here. Yes. Every speaker certainly had some impact on his audience. But convincing an entire nation or race is entirely a different scenario, about which we talked above.