Considering
a well-known speaker I would prefer to avoid politics. Unfortunately, the most
well-known speakers in this day and age are politicians. The nice thing about
that is that if one were to look at our politicians one would find a very
diverse group that have varying levels of education and backgrounds. Even many
of the “career” politicians were in the past things such as business owners,
teachers, lawyers, and doctors. Depending on which one you are listening to,
and what topic they are speaking on, you may have differing strengths in
characteristics.
In
the political arena I believe that credibility and power carry the most weight
when swaying the voting populace to believe that you are the right person for
the job. Experience, and trustworthiness are important, but you also have to
present yourself as strong enough to actually accomplish and follow through on
the promises you make. If you were to look at Congress and the current
administration, you could see that neither side has had the strength or fortitude
to follow through on campaign promises that they have been making for the past few
years. While having their power balanced is something that has always been
important in this country. Their standstill has meant that the status quo hasn’t
changed.
For
them to build ethos in these areas it is important that they find ways to
accomplish things that are for the good of the American people. If the economy
and national debt are major concerns for the people, then they need to find
ways to grow the economy and shrink the debt. Currently their power is based
more on coercive power. While some may, I personally don’t trust people who
hold threats over my head. Shifting to one of the other power bases, could
increase trustworthiness. Placing experts in key cabinet positions, would also
help their credibility and overall character.
When looking for well-known speaker it was hard for me as well to stray away from politicians. I tried to think very long and hard, which is why I posted my answer to this question on my blog last. It’s true what you said, most politicians in our day and age are the best speakers we have to critique. Trustworthiness is important, but who can we really trust? We are going off their words and promises, but can only hope for some type of deliverance from these politicians. Experience is also important like you said, we would definitely want someone who knows what they’re doing to run our country!
ReplyDeleteI too had a hard time finding a public speaker who was not a political figure. What I ended up doing was going onto YouTube and searching through my memory for old videos of speakers my previous teachers had had me watch. I am not sure about the idea of credibility and carrying the most weight being to top reasons to sway a vote, but I know that when I vote, I vote for the non-repeat candidate. I think that too many political people act in office for too many years with the temptations of corruption and dishonesty leading the way. I hate politics and what it does to people. So keep an open mind when it comes to influential speakers, and keep in mind it doesn’t take a politician to be influential.
ReplyDelete