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TEDx Talks
Published: 2016-05-23
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGBamfWasNQ
speech writing must be one of the way this jokes in the wells no matter how carefully the words have been prepared you never quite shel how they're going to be delivered yes did I I was in London and I was watching one of my clients he's a big Australian businessmen deliver a speech that operates in for him not risen from this passage kind of with Winston
Churchill in mines about how we've got to fight for our future fight to protect track position fight I competitors I'm not forgotten about the Australian accents and I watched from the back of the room with horror as I saw him god we've got a fought for and future follow up to protect their position and I'll tell you what folks when I wakeup every morning that's one
thing I know for sure I'm going to do that by salts so its value I'm going to share with you some speech writer secrets because I don't know where the United S. but they resist secrets language of leadership a secret language of leadership that we all use to be told what's at school ancient rhetoric this was a cool parts of the curriculum night shin wrong parts
of the trivia in London right the way through to the nineteenth century it was possible to get a free education regrets wreck but not see mathematics reflects in the importance that was placed on the topic today I teach name rhetoric is restricted restricted to a powerful privileged few so what I'm gonna do in my spare it's revive a sanction offs of rhetoric and share with you
six techniques so that you can all speak likely bets so rights okay stop lights still listen not left no crimes look center you feeling stress chess little bit sad shape that's because I'm a McCain hypoventilation and so this is the authentic sounds affair I'm not fair transference tears this is an ancient Roman rhetorical device they use to call it a sin to Ted but it's one
that lead is still use to dissect David Cameron uses sets broken homes failing schools syncra specs Tony Blair used to use that as well education education education barrack Obama to a world of law a planet in peril the worst financial crisis in a generation why free well three is the magic number in rhetoric governments hope the people by the people for the people I'm fine I'm
right I'm fuel hot one Jeb and they read the specs so I'm almost though what was the hardest parts of the speech to practice I thank you for the applause this is also an ancient Roman rhetorical device they use to call it try co loan which makes it sound like a peculiar part of the digestive system but it's just put him put things in freeze you
pick your arguments and freeze it makes it sound more compelling more convincing more credible just like fats so we find the rule of three head that and everywhere and so indeed you can tell the history of Verona for nothing more than the rule of three if you think that sees he used to come here to thousand years ago they need VP Vicini four hundred years ago
Shakespeare right Romeo and Juliet's which was such here Romeo Romeo wet for offering me are but of course fallen away the most momentous offense Inver on his history today's type acts re environments rethink rely riots let's move on number two three sentences in which the opening close it's repeats it now this is what Winston Churchill did with his fight on the beaches we shall fight on
the landing grounds we shall fight on the fields and in the streets of course he could have said that it's a whole not quick cut but he wanted to communicate his emotion so he repeats that when we were emotional about things out perspective distortion that spend manifests and I speech and so this is the old friends take sounds of passion I love for right now I
love it's silly I love pasta I love tiramisu I love food if you I love the excitement so left the inn and the che I love the infuse Seattle here in this room are you feeding my passion you should be because I'm a speech writer and I know how to make a point it's sweeps people away and this is why this is a technique which is
used by slick salesman and bond market traders on no Austin twenty pounds on no all skin fifteen pounds on not even all skin ten pounds it sweeps people on to the next point which is three balance in statements ask not what your country can do for you ask what you can do feel country it's nothing wrong with America Tom be killed by what's right with America
to be or not to be if the sentence sounds as if it's balanced we imagine that the on the line thinking its balance not bringing it is tuned to like things for a balance balanced mines balanced diets balanced lives and so we drones to these kinds of sentences were attracted to them even if that balance it's actually just an illusion like we look into the future
not the past we working together not against one another we think about what we can do not what we come ons now let's move on to number four masterful metaphor is probably the most powerful piece of political communication the bet no one ever talks about the elephant in the room so to speak which is extraordinary because we use metaphor once every sixteen words on average so
I conversation it's littered with Max for scattered with metaphors we constant for very long without reaching for a metaphor and metaphors have very though dates CC metaphors to rule over the place and they are political in that they are used by people to lead people towards things or indeed smite them recoil and so we use beautiful images images of people images of love images of family
of sunshine in order to draw people towards things and we use disgusting images verb made scary monsters disease sickness in order to make people recoil and viral lies and then never challenged and yet they have an enormous impact on the way that people behave in respond that's been researcher in the change and nothing more than the metaphor in a piece of text can lead to fundamentally
different reactions from people on questions raised in from whether or not that invest in a company whether or not Faye and whether or not they will back particular crime policies to even whether or not that supports a foreign war and so this is really really important stuff and it sold around outside let me just take free of the big metaphors treats magic number three of the
big metaphors that around at the moment the Arab spring you've all heard of the Arab spring you call talk about what's going on in the Middle East without called in its Spain Fritz sunshine in flowers bloom and this is a time of re growth revolve rejuvenation and yeah it's a big lie it's in that even the most optimistic geo political experts look at the Middle East
inside this can take two generations to recover it's not and I ripped spring it's my ribbon phone I take another one fixed hello you jungle now this is a price that is really taken roots metaphorically speakin in the last year well sorry if you Google tally and jungle you get seventy million results if you Google pally and cross Sohn you get just how familiar results and
once the image this is plants in your mind plants in your mind the idea that migrants are like wild animals to be afraid of that dangerously represents the threats TI and this is a very dangerous metaphor because this is the language of genocide is the language of heights it's the same metaphor that Hitler used against the Jews to them it's Mike's it's the same language which
was used in the Rwandan genocide by the Hutu against the Tootsie I would describe as cockroaches and so it should be of intense consents what's that this is a phrase that is being used now by the mainstream media to talk about some of the most vulnerable people in our planet's to take one more the financial storm the financial storm for the financial crisis was the financial
crisis really an act of nature it's the storm metaphor suggests so it was nothing to do with greedy bankers or timid politicians or ineffective regulate says the storeroom clones a phony image in our minds that this is something that just swept him not truly and equally would just sweep away with no need for action on our parts it's a big lie pope Francis nice that it's
a big lie and say he doesn't speak use in the financial storm metaphor he has a different metaphor he talks about the dung heap of capitalism and say that he's Houston the metaphor of shapes which is wonderful because what he's calling for his demonte the cleanup of the whole system and this is this a match for that every human being on the planet can instantly instantly
on the stand would be instantly disgusted by adults as well this is a match for the can get people from time to time so I've fallen into this metaphorical spices one that some of our funny a politicians do from time to time or it's Johnson back in the U. kite he's talks about how the labor leader emanated from the bowels of the trade union movements in
my time worked in government we had Tony Blair and Gordon brown described as two cheeks of the site in Los and Ronald Reagan wants talks about governments as a baby with a huge appetites that woman's and no sense of responsibility at the alpha so let's move on to number five exaggeration when we were emotional apt respective distorts this manifests in that speech and people or emotional
about something will therefore go over the top so my god I've been waitin for gifts talk hold on I didn't sleep it sold last night's and I am going to give my heart and soul to get uptight these rule exaggerates have statements leaders do this kind of stuff all the time you might think it's out of order but in actual fact exaggeration is just part and
parcel of ordinary conversation and so that just replicates in the kinds of things that we do not truly when we do that sleeve once number six rhyme Ferris research showing people are more likely to believe something is true if it rhyme and if it does not rhyme which feels upsides discounts what linguists talk about as the processing fluency of language how we see its language to
swallow if you speak using long words and long sentences it's like giving someone a spike and asking them to swallow its whereas if you give them something pithy like a rhyme it's like call scan them to just set upon some precise because and so we learn things Frew rhymes from the moment the way it's hopeless one two buckle my shoe and so growing since signifiers of
truth in our society so they can often be used baffle to conceal pharmacies I don't know if any of you remember the OJ Simpson case if it doesn't fit you must acquit yeah a not that I so don't throw away sounds simple but sounds true but my god we could save some health cat spent spending if not really well thought through it will snap another one
in the U. kite we all learn spelling through this line Ali before re except tough to see which would be great if only it were true but it's complete nonsense that's just forty four examples of what's in which that's true that's nine hundred examples of words in which it is not trade I once presented this to a room full of people who works in the city
and the insights of yeah we've got one you've got a speculates who accumulates I may be the whole financial crisis was predicated on a rhyming fallacy if only the bankers have begun around science one another speculation leads to liquefaction perhaps we wouldn't of pain in this mess that we are in so there we go they were the six steps and using the six steps you can
make the most absurd arguments sounds plausible why if you're into ancient rhetoric because they work their way through ethos pathos logos if you prefer thinking about persuasion intensive near of science they work because they speak to the instincts have emotional and illogical brains and so I'm going to demonstrate this now up like one a few friendly initiative and I will jam speech out for you I
will improvise a speech so who would light suggested OPEC for meets her seriously don't Donald Trump you'll meet skull for were dead Ste for or against full right plain speaking honest all forward stiff America's been waitin for someone to grab it by the scruff its neck and pick it up America's been waiting for a politician to connect that to tell the truth America's been waitin for
someone who could really show leadership trump's beyond knocks by the liberal establishment but he's winning support from the people that's because he's not spinning he's telling it like it is and he's not just be concerned America readiness hall but he's speaking to a truth across the world's now the world has been waitin for enlightenment from someone like trump for a long while now and I tell
you what Olifants here in Verona to die we ought to be flying can I'll lucky stars that for once we've got genuine political debates taken place in the United States maybe who knows we might get something like this in Europe one vice stranger things have happens so if you think about trump that he's someone we should jump then soon if you in the year to our
site socks you compared I would just like to make it absolutely clear for the record both what's I think we should dump trump yeah he said some it's a playful exercise but the point I'm making here is very serious the reason we all use to learn rhetoric at school was because it was seen as a bicycle entry point society how could society be fat and let's
have one had equal ability to articulate and express themselves without it your legal systems you'll political systems no financial systems are not fat and so it's should be of intense concerns what amounts the education and that's been NAREIT rat narrowed to a very small and powerful elites in Britain there's one school that teaches rhetoric and that's his eaten nine chain of Alice fifty prime ministers went
to that school cited us current matter of London cited I Roach bishop of cancer break it's it's absolutely scandalous that when in the world we dealing with such huge challenges financial inequalities the apocalyptic threats of climate change religious persecution on much since the nineteen forties that we should be restricting debates to such a narrow minority instead of teaching out children sit down and shut up we
