Ancient & modern

Wednesday, 21st January 2009

President-elect Obama (as I write) is preparing his inaugural, and it will doubtless display the same persuasive charm and intelligence that has characterised all his speeches.

President-elect Obama (as I write) is preparing his inaugural, and it will doubtless display the same persuasive charm and intelligence that has characterised all his speeches. ‘Change’, ‘belief’ ‘opportunity’, ‘freedom’, ‘hope’, ‘equality’, ‘rights’ and ‘listening to the people’ will be qualified by ‘responsibility’ and ‘challenge’. ‘Yes, we can’ may become ‘Yes, we can, but only if...’.

In his Art of Rhetoric, Aristotle lays down the six prime topics of political oratory: revenue, war and peace, defence of the realm, imports and exports, legislation and (most important of all) the end to which they were directed. Under ‘revenue’, he says, the speaker must have mastered the sources of income, and indicate how he will increase it and/or save on expenditure. Under ‘war and peace’, the speaker must be aware of the strengths and weaknesses of his own and others’ forces, so that they can make peace with stronger, and war on weaker, neighbours. Under ‘defence’, he must especially be aware of vulnerabilities. ‘Imports and exports’ for Aristotle mean ‘food’, and good terms need to be kept with two groups: those stronger, and those commercially useful. By ‘legislation’, Aristotle means ways of preventing civil war, always a major issue in the ancient world and one that cannot be entirely discounted in the modern.

But since there is no purpose in producing policies if they are not directed to some end, what end should that be? Obviously, says Aristotle, happiness, and he proceeds to list some popular definitions of it: virtuous success, self-sufficiency, security, and material and physical well-being, together, of course, with the capacity to procure and/or safeguard these various ‘goods’. He then suggests specific markers of happiness: good birth, creditable children, wealth, high status, a circle of respectable friends and, naturally, virtue. Most of these cannot be delivered by politicians (with the exception of Harriet Harman, obviously), but the statesman needs to know what they are if he is to persuade.

In contrast with the hard-edged, straight-talking practicality of the ancient world, today’s political rhetoric is largely aspirational. Its purpose seems to be to provide a template on which everyone can write their own dreams, whatever they may be. Let us hope the President is up to the reality.

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shm

January 24th, 2009 2:11pm Report this comment

Something must have been good about the good old times. When an American friend and I drove up to the famaus Auberge de l'ill in round about 1973 in a battered old Volkswagen with clothes to match we are treated like royalty and pampered and cared for in a way unheard of in German restaurants and all of it for not more than we would have paid in a German well kept gut b�rgerliche K�che place. When we returned the next day to a repeat of the incredibly pleasurable treat M. Haeberlin himself already perfectly made-up remembered us and again we simple folks in our backpack-style clothing were treated like royalty.

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