"That brings me back to my original point, the curious carelessness of our time about what was once called rhetoric, the art of stating your case. How often do our propagandists - a class continually increasing in numbers and activity - stop to consider the values of words? It is astonishing to me that people whose profession is to persuade or whose passion is to win converts to a cause should be so careless of their tools and so well content to employ long, tired terms and clichés instead of seeking fresh, brief and apt ones, terms whose value in sound is so easily discoverable. Public men, with policies to urge, continue to drool and drone on platforms and in print with no discoverable awareness that they are killing their own case by the dull and ponderous language they employ."
Ivor Brown (Jonathan Cape, 1943) in a book
produced in complete conformity with the authorized war economy standards.
I don't feel I need add to this ...
Posts
Hah! I will send a copy of this to M. Clogg's cousin, as well as to the man he regularly tries to unseat.
ReplyDeleteI watched and I wondered, as all three were racing each other to the bottom of the heap.
ReplyDeleteDid you notice in the picture that Brown and Cleggy appear to be 2/3 of a boyband practicing their footwork, but Dave is the Geri Halliwell of the group and can't get it right?
ReplyDeleteThe Daily Mash suggests they were paying tribute to Larry Grayson ...
ReplyDeleteAnd they look so PLEASED with what they've said, as though they were the first person to ever think of 'Make a difference' or 'We are the party of change'. BORing.
ReplyDeleteYou've hit the nail on the head as usual. Although I watched the debates with fascination there was always something missing and I've just worked out what it was. Where was the passion, the drive, the caring so much it hurts? I don't really care how they're going to do whatever they get elected to do. I want to hear them tell me why they want to do it. Blazing rhetoric and anger and emotion. I think that's why there's so much sympathy for Gordon's little slip - at last a glimpse of the real unguarded, exhausted, honest man - in the twitter / blog world I live in anyway!
ReplyDeleteI agree with InvisibleWoman. Let's get down to basics - they all have to stand with their hand on the door of number 10 like those American 'win the winnebago' competitions. Last man standing is the one who wants it the most. I'd watch that.
ReplyDeletep.s. love the picture - whole new meaning to flaming(o) rhetoric!
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