Public Speaking As a Tool For Controlling the Masses

Those among us who learn and perfect the art of public speaking attain the means and the power to control and even suppress the rest of us. This world is run by those who can express themselves better and convince his or her fellows that he or she has their interest at heart. If the masses listen and perceive that you understand and express their concern in a way they understand, they place the responsibility of determining their lives entirely on your hands. That is why the finest orators in our society are always leaders of different causes.

Essentially, public speaking is a process of speaking to a group using a creatively structured speech, a deliberate style and manner intended to subjectively inform on matters important to the speaker. If a public speaker can convince, interest and entertain the listeners in a way that influences their convictions and consequent decisions, that is successful public speaking. The advances of technology have only but increased the audience potential of orators but the art and structure of public speech remains persistently the same as that of old. Surprisingly, the art of public speaking has been developed and studied mostly at the level of politics.

Public speaking is even today regarded as a means of communicating, influencing and controlling the masses by either the ruling classes or elites. Results of a public speech are always gauged by its influence on listeners and how effectively it coerces them to assume a particular course of action or behavior. Simply put, the essence of public speaking rests in controlling the behavior, beliefs and actions of the masses. Most leaders are voted into offices because their speeches best- expressed a message that resonated with the wishes of the masses.

Let's get practical. The immediate former US president, George W. Bush, was voted back to the office because he successfully convinced the American voting public that the priority concern of their nation was to successfully wage an anti-terrorism campaign. When John McCain a fellow republican used an almost similar platform in the last general election, he lost. In fact, Obama is now the president because he successfully convinced the same voting public that war and vengeance was outdated and that America needed to spearhead peace initiatives even with known terrorist-harboring nations.

There you have it. It is never about the message. Never about the person. It is all about who uses the public forum successfully to convince, influence and then control the masses' point of view. Power is granted to those who best use the tool of inspirational black speakers to express a message that the masses can feel have a meaning for them.