On eloquence
Eloquence.— We need both what is pleasing and what is real, but that which pleases must itself be drawn from the true.”
― Blaise Pascal, The Thoughts of Blaise Pascal
I was scrolling at one of my feeds when I stumbled into a video of a prominent political personality giving an eloquent speech with a concerning, uh, lack of substance. It reminded me of the many times in rooms in which people who mastered the fluency in their speeches, commanded the attention and usually the convincing of their idea, regardless of the deepness of their arguments. Maybe I notice it and felt inclined to write about it because it is one of the areas I fall short, speaking a second language and being socially anxious in all languages, and that what bothers you in others is what you fail to recognize in yourself. Taking the personal out of the way, allow me to hold your attention.
Is “eloquence” harmful, or beneficial, to states and individuals? Asked Cicero in the preface of De Inventione (On innovation).
My own reason at last leads me to this determination, that wisdom without eloquence can be of little use to states; but eloquence without wisdom may frequently hurt them, and can never be of service to them.
Cicero’s words were directed to states and individuals, but I will like to extend the argument to companies and communities (online or not). Certainly it’s not like eloquence should be disregarded:
And indeed to me it seems, that silent and speechless wisdom, could never have had the influence to make such a sudden reformation in mankind from their bad habits, and gain them over to the various duties of a rational life.
But what happens when eloquence is dressed in style that left the substance at home?
When therefore he, who regardless of wisdom made eloquence his only study, was often equal in speaking, sometimes superior, it happened, that in the opinion of the many, and his own conceit, he seemed a person worthy to govern the common-wealth.
The danger resides also in the silencing of the less fluent, the leaving behind potential innovative contributions; in the power that eloquence confers to those who yield it in our meetings, in our homes, in our national televisions that let us forget why they are there in the first place.