Speeches

[avram]

I watched the first half of Zell Miller’s speech at the GOP convention before I couldn’t take anymore, and not just because the compression of the video stream made it seem like the turncoat was being applauded by an army of giant alien insects. Then, minutes ago at the pizza parlor, I heard a bit of an old speech by some al Qaeda bigwig, and I wondered: Is someone else’s rousing rhetoric always creepy?

King’s “I have a dream” speech — surely one of the most stirring pieces of political rhetoric in the modern English language — must sound like a nightmare to a racial separatist. I guess Objectivists and anarchists must find Kennedy’s “Ask not” inaugural address pretty creepy.

Comments

Hate

[(Anonymous)]

The difference is that the I Have a Dream speech referred directly to a person only once (the governor of Alabama), in passing, and indirectly to two other groups (Stone Mtn. and Lookout Mtn.), again, in passing.

JFK's inaugural address makes no negative comments about anyone, except to the Communists, whom he admonishes to join in looking for peace.

Zell Miller repeatedly attacked John Kerry. Personally. That is the difference.

Sprechen sie Deutsche? If you don't, you can listen to the difference. I've got two files here:

http://www.needsfoodbadly.com/zell1.mp3
http://www.needsfoodbadly.com/zell2.mp3

Even if you don't know what they're saying, you can guess which one's angry. We're conditioned to know that. Even the most partisan can recognise the beauty of a good speech. A speech like Zell's is a bad speech, appealing to out baser emotions, not filling us with hope us like King's speeches or Kennedy's speech.