Once upon a time, narrative was the word used to describe the compelling storytelling that garnered Oscars, made box-office hits, churned out literary page-turners and even underpinned brilliant business plans. But definitions change: These days the very same word is used to describe something that’s simply not true. Increasingly, narrative means a sequence of facts [ more » ]
Utopia, Vision, and Narrative: Is there a real Philip Dru out there?
Utopia, Vision, and Narrative: Is there a real Philip Dru out there? If you don’t like White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon and the effect he’s having on American politics, take heart: his polar opposite is out there somewhere. A century ago a real man who in his day was every bit as powerful as [ more » ]
The Spoken Word… or the Spoken Thought?
Has President Donald Trump’s own distinctive delivery style rendered the formal prepared speech forever obsolete? For millennia, the business of public persuasion by princes, politicians and those in power, has depended on a deliberate construct based on the rules of oratory and rhetoric. Building up a chain of logical argument by means of tested ideas [ more » ]
A ‘call to action’ with real bite
Every speechwriter and every public speaker knows you should finish your talk with an inspiring call to action. That’s how leaders trigger real change. Sometimes it works – and sometimes it doesn’t. But the first rule is: always keep it short. So “Yes, we can” worked. So did “I have a dream,” and “We choose [ more » ]
Who’s that on Donald Trump’s hat?
Could a long-dead German philosopher resembling Karl Marx with a proper haircut, hold the keys to the 2016 US presidential election race? Yes, if the sharply-contrasting campaigning styles of rival candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump reveal deeper truths about the way modern societies are led, and the way we pick those who will wield [ more » ]
A Golden Age of Narcissism
Thanks to the undoubted persuasion power and oratorial skills of certain politicians, some commentators have laid the blame on charisma for what might be called a battle of “Demagogues Vs. Democrats” that’s now unfolding across some western liberal democracies. In fact, we seem to be entering a new Golden Age of Narcissism, built around the [ more » ]