Translation of excerpts from Robert Heinlein’s book, Take Your Government Back - part 12
Since we have touched on the topic of political speeches, let's talk about them in more detail. Making a speech is not as difficult as it seems. Here is the basic presentation that you can always use. It is designed for the case when you have to speak in front of a small, unfamiliar audience - this is the most difficult case. It is always more difficult for a small audience to speak. Anyone can successfully perform in front of a thousand listeners. But as long as you don’t earn a name and reputation for yourself in politics, you will not be offered to speak at large meetings, and by that time you will have already learned how to speak perfectly. Until that moment, if you are invited to speak at a large rally, then not as the main speaker, but only as one of the speakers after him. And this means that you will have only a couple of dozen words, which are enough only to greet the audience (“Good afternoon, the weather is fine today, isn't it?”), To express praise for the “wonderful speech of the main speaker”, thanks "To our permanent chairman and organizers committee," and say that you "warmly support the candidate being nominated, and you will vote only for him." Then you will have to say “Thank you for your attention”, and proceed to your place. Listeners will appreciate your brevity, and your public speaking will improve. In November 1926, I attended a large stadium rally in Chicago. So, the vice-president of the United States spoke for three minutes, the governor spoke for seven minutes, the mayor of the city of Chicago spoke ten, and the official of the city park who was in charge of the football field of this stadium spoke for more than an hour! And all this time his listeners were covered with snow, and the temperature was below zero degrees. What do you think, which of the speeches the audience liked the most?
As your political fame grows, you will be invited as a keynote speaker to speak in front of small audiences. The most difficult type of such speeches is a speech to listeners who are not the universal supporters of your party, whom you also have committed not to campaign. For example, such are speeches to members of a church community, or a charitable organization. At first glance, the task posed by such a performance is impossible - to make a political speech, without mentioning the policy itself. Of the calls for improving the work of the government and the eradication of corruption, one cannot concoct full-fledged speech. In addition, both of these topics are too hackneyed.
What to do? Watch my hands: now I will show you the focus. I don’t have any cards in my sleeve, but in my pocket there are a couple of dozen sharpened pencils. Stand up, worship the chairperson of the meeting, and say: “Madame Chairman, dear ladies, the worst thing about invitations like this is their influence on my waist.” Drop your eyes to your waist, and continue: “Asking me to speak after such a dinner is just a crime. In good now it would be better to take a nap. But let's get down to business. Quizzes with the participation of the audience is now in great fashion. I see no reason why not to conduct them on political topics - it was this idea that occurred to me yesterday when I watched the quiz show, so now we will have a little quiz. ” With these words, get the pencils.
')
“In case there is nothing for someone to write, here are the pencils you can take. Ladies across from me, could you pass the pencils to those who need them? Now let each of you take a piece of paper. ” Do not bring paper with you: it is usually at all, but pencils are not enough. While everyone is looking for paper, you can get comfortable and look at your listeners. Someone, catching your eyes, smile. Smile in response, making a good impression of a person who loves children and does not forget to visit his mother. Remember the saying about how to grow pigs?
“Is everyone ready? Let's start the quiz. Write your name at the top of the sheet. Well, well, bolder, I will not show anyone your answers. No one, no one will see these sheets, except me. At the end of the quiz, I want to give the names of the winners, the reward you will be the joy of victory - I am fundamentally against political competition with cash prizes. Finished? And now - the first question: write the name and surname of the President of the United States. ” Pause. "Write the name and surname of the governor of our state." Pause. "Now write the names and the names of the senators from our state." And so on.
Ask attendees to write the names of congressmen from your district, senators and congressmen of the state assembly, elected head of the county government, members of the county council for overseeing the activities of the government, elected judge of the district ... . After that, find out the name of the mayor of the city, members of the municipal council of the city and the city election commission. In general, ask to write the names of elected officials who directly represent the interests of the people you are interviewing. Your audience is not responsible for the nominations of officials in appointed posts, so limit yourself to those whom they have chosen (or voted against) and, therefore, should know their names. Next, ask if everyone is registered at their polling stations, and which of those present voted in the last primary election - the primaries. (Voting at the main elections is not at all an indicator of civic consciousness, as well as rising at the sounds of the national anthem).
Now collect the answer sheets and view them.
If you have not done such a survey before, its results will amaze you, and maybe even discourage you. If you find a leaflet with answers, at least for most questions, it will most likely be the winner of your quiz, which you can call a commendably conscious citizen, especially if she voted in the last primaries. But hardly any of your listeners will deserve such praise. Most of them will not advance beyond the names of the president and the governor. After them there will be fragmentary answers, half of which will be incorrect. Most often, after the first two names will continue to go emptiness.
I remember one honorable lady who considered that Chamberlain (the prime minister of Great Britain in 1938) is an American senator. I even met people who do not know who is the president of the United States, although it already borders on dementia, I do not take these people into account in my statistics.
After these results, you can easily roll a ten-minute speech about civic consciousness, citing the audience as an example if it is not the best example of this very consciousness. Point out that if they went to the polls at all, they voted in favor of or against the appointment of officials whose names did not bother to remember. And now, in the name of all that is holy, we don’t fear that with such a lack of public control, a gang of corrupt crooks will not come to power, and, thank God, that at least some of these officials are honest people, despite the fact that the ladies from the Church the communities in which you are speaking now do not pay the slightest attention to what is happening in the country, which the ancestors bequeathed to them, and for whose freedom their sons died.
You can call from the grave the spirits of women fighters for emancipation, and ask them whether this is the equality of the sexes they sought. Remind students also that their family budget tax exceeds family spending on food, and ask them if they think that it would be wise to choose the congressmen who are on their taxes as carefully as cucumbers in the store.
In general, the results of the survey are so annoying to you, especially when you remember the hard efforts you are making to pull local voters out of the swamp of civil irresponsibility that your speech may be your first really good public speech. After all, you are excited, and you have the facts in your hands, and this combination automatically turns out a good performance.
Just do not attach your audience too much, resist this temptation. No need to burn them with a hot iron stigma. Try to express, rather, regret, rather than anger, cause in them shame, but not a response hardening personally against you.
Some ingenious grandmother can say that she never wanted to receive voting rights on an equal basis with men. Do not argue with her, but praise her as a worthy woman, and politely tell her that personally she can not use her right to vote, just as voters in Germany did. That it is enough for her not to register at the polling station, and her good old status as a child, slave, or pet will automatically return to her. This is quite a relevant comparison, only a hundred years ago, women were considered to be something between the first, the second, and the third.
Hearing this classification, most women will be indignant. It does not matter how indifferent they are in a civilian sense, but each of them likes to think of himself as a free citizen. The ladies in your audience were sincerely convinced that they are, until you showed them a mirror with a reflection of their astonished civilian faces, and did not remind them of their compatriots who made a lot of good things in politics, something even more than men. After all, speaking of a corrupt official, they represent him in the form of a man, not a woman.
Any thoughtful woman ashamed of your words may ask you what they can do to become good and conscious citizens of their country. If no one asks such a question, provoke it, or ask it yourself as a rhetorical one. You are here to get votes, and use the chance to get them, and no matter what is on the agenda of the chairman. Do not invite a thoughtful lady to join your political club: you have pledged not to engage in political agitation. Instead, tell the listeners what I told you in chapter 3, let them take the phone book, and start raising their civic awareness by calling the local branch of their party. However, still write down the name of that thoughtful lady and then find out in the voter lists which party she supports. Perhaps this way you will find a new member for your club.
As for the answer sheets, take them home with you. Of these, you will get at least the names of the individuals who voted for the primaries. Check their party habits and add to the file of supporters of your party. They should start sending your club's mailing list, some of them can subsequently join the club and become your agitators. These women are not hopeless, they are simply stuck in the bustle.
(And by the way, after the performance, do not forget to collect pencils: they will still be useful to you).
The result of the same survey in the male audience will be somewhat better, and you will be able to praise several listeners as good citizens who deserve their right to vote. After the same survey conducted at any political meeting, you will receive a lot of sheets, which will have the correct answers to all the questions you asked.
The described scheme of performance can be applied again and again, year after year, before any audience. You do not need to add anything else to your repertoire, until you find something else to talk about, but by that time the performances will be completely easy for you. A poll trick can even be used several times before the same audience under the pretext of studying the development of their civic consciousness, this method invariably holds the attention of the audience, and can always be used to search for its potential voters.
Part 1, where there are links to all other parts
As your political fame grows, you will be invited as a keynote speaker to speak in front of small audiences. The most difficult type of such speeches is a speech to listeners who are not the universal supporters of your party, whom you also have committed not to campaign. For example, such are speeches to members of a church community, or a charitable organization. At first glance, the task posed by such a performance is impossible - to make a political speech, without mentioning the policy itself. Of the calls for improving the work of the government and the eradication of corruption, one cannot concoct full-fledged speech. In addition, both of these topics are too hackneyed.
What to do? Watch my hands: now I will show you the focus. I don’t have any cards in my sleeve, but in my pocket there are a couple of dozen sharpened pencils. Stand up, worship the chairperson of the meeting, and say: “Madame Chairman, dear ladies, the worst thing about invitations like this is their influence on my waist.” Drop your eyes to your waist, and continue: “Asking me to speak after such a dinner is just a crime. In good now it would be better to take a nap. But let's get down to business. Quizzes with the participation of the audience is now in great fashion. I see no reason why not to conduct them on political topics - it was this idea that occurred to me yesterday when I watched the quiz show, so now we will have a little quiz. ” With these words, get the pencils.
')
“In case there is nothing for someone to write, here are the pencils you can take. Ladies across from me, could you pass the pencils to those who need them? Now let each of you take a piece of paper. ” Do not bring paper with you: it is usually at all, but pencils are not enough. While everyone is looking for paper, you can get comfortable and look at your listeners. Someone, catching your eyes, smile. Smile in response, making a good impression of a person who loves children and does not forget to visit his mother. Remember the saying about how to grow pigs?
“Is everyone ready? Let's start the quiz. Write your name at the top of the sheet. Well, well, bolder, I will not show anyone your answers. No one, no one will see these sheets, except me. At the end of the quiz, I want to give the names of the winners, the reward you will be the joy of victory - I am fundamentally against political competition with cash prizes. Finished? And now - the first question: write the name and surname of the President of the United States. ” Pause. "Write the name and surname of the governor of our state." Pause. "Now write the names and the names of the senators from our state." And so on.
Ask attendees to write the names of congressmen from your district, senators and congressmen of the state assembly, elected head of the county government, members of the county council for overseeing the activities of the government, elected judge of the district ... . After that, find out the name of the mayor of the city, members of the municipal council of the city and the city election commission. In general, ask to write the names of elected officials who directly represent the interests of the people you are interviewing. Your audience is not responsible for the nominations of officials in appointed posts, so limit yourself to those whom they have chosen (or voted against) and, therefore, should know their names. Next, ask if everyone is registered at their polling stations, and which of those present voted in the last primary election - the primaries. (Voting at the main elections is not at all an indicator of civic consciousness, as well as rising at the sounds of the national anthem).
Now collect the answer sheets and view them.
If you have not done such a survey before, its results will amaze you, and maybe even discourage you. If you find a leaflet with answers, at least for most questions, it will most likely be the winner of your quiz, which you can call a commendably conscious citizen, especially if she voted in the last primaries. But hardly any of your listeners will deserve such praise. Most of them will not advance beyond the names of the president and the governor. After them there will be fragmentary answers, half of which will be incorrect. Most often, after the first two names will continue to go emptiness.
I remember one honorable lady who considered that Chamberlain (the prime minister of Great Britain in 1938) is an American senator. I even met people who do not know who is the president of the United States, although it already borders on dementia, I do not take these people into account in my statistics.
After these results, you can easily roll a ten-minute speech about civic consciousness, citing the audience as an example if it is not the best example of this very consciousness. Point out that if they went to the polls at all, they voted in favor of or against the appointment of officials whose names did not bother to remember. And now, in the name of all that is holy, we don’t fear that with such a lack of public control, a gang of corrupt crooks will not come to power, and, thank God, that at least some of these officials are honest people, despite the fact that the ladies from the Church the communities in which you are speaking now do not pay the slightest attention to what is happening in the country, which the ancestors bequeathed to them, and for whose freedom their sons died.
You can call from the grave the spirits of women fighters for emancipation, and ask them whether this is the equality of the sexes they sought. Remind students also that their family budget tax exceeds family spending on food, and ask them if they think that it would be wise to choose the congressmen who are on their taxes as carefully as cucumbers in the store.
In general, the results of the survey are so annoying to you, especially when you remember the hard efforts you are making to pull local voters out of the swamp of civil irresponsibility that your speech may be your first really good public speech. After all, you are excited, and you have the facts in your hands, and this combination automatically turns out a good performance.
Just do not attach your audience too much, resist this temptation. No need to burn them with a hot iron stigma. Try to express, rather, regret, rather than anger, cause in them shame, but not a response hardening personally against you.
Some ingenious grandmother can say that she never wanted to receive voting rights on an equal basis with men. Do not argue with her, but praise her as a worthy woman, and politely tell her that personally she can not use her right to vote, just as voters in Germany did. That it is enough for her not to register at the polling station, and her good old status as a child, slave, or pet will automatically return to her. This is quite a relevant comparison, only a hundred years ago, women were considered to be something between the first, the second, and the third.
Hearing this classification, most women will be indignant. It does not matter how indifferent they are in a civilian sense, but each of them likes to think of himself as a free citizen. The ladies in your audience were sincerely convinced that they are, until you showed them a mirror with a reflection of their astonished civilian faces, and did not remind them of their compatriots who made a lot of good things in politics, something even more than men. After all, speaking of a corrupt official, they represent him in the form of a man, not a woman.
Any thoughtful woman ashamed of your words may ask you what they can do to become good and conscious citizens of their country. If no one asks such a question, provoke it, or ask it yourself as a rhetorical one. You are here to get votes, and use the chance to get them, and no matter what is on the agenda of the chairman. Do not invite a thoughtful lady to join your political club: you have pledged not to engage in political agitation. Instead, tell the listeners what I told you in chapter 3, let them take the phone book, and start raising their civic awareness by calling the local branch of their party. However, still write down the name of that thoughtful lady and then find out in the voter lists which party she supports. Perhaps this way you will find a new member for your club.
As for the answer sheets, take them home with you. Of these, you will get at least the names of the individuals who voted for the primaries. Check their party habits and add to the file of supporters of your party. They should start sending your club's mailing list, some of them can subsequently join the club and become your agitators. These women are not hopeless, they are simply stuck in the bustle.
(And by the way, after the performance, do not forget to collect pencils: they will still be useful to you).
The result of the same survey in the male audience will be somewhat better, and you will be able to praise several listeners as good citizens who deserve their right to vote. After the same survey conducted at any political meeting, you will receive a lot of sheets, which will have the correct answers to all the questions you asked.
The described scheme of performance can be applied again and again, year after year, before any audience. You do not need to add anything else to your repertoire, until you find something else to talk about, but by that time the performances will be completely easy for you. A poll trick can even be used several times before the same audience under the pretext of studying the development of their civic consciousness, this method invariably holds the attention of the audience, and can always be used to search for its potential voters.
Part 1, where there are links to all other parts
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/301396/
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