The Thinking Anew column in The Irish Times today.
Michael Commane
I think it fair to say that some people are powerful orators. It doesn’t always mean that we have to agree with what they say but if we do, it even makes their words stronger and more powerful.
I had the good fortune when working in Concern Worldwide to hear Bill Clinton when he was on a visit to Dublin. I heard him speak in Dublin Castle. It was that dead hour, immediately after lunch when it’s difficult to stay awake. I was enthralled by him, listened to every word he said and felt he was speaking directly to me. The topic was aid to the developing world and every word he said made complete sense to me.
He reminded me that day of the Pied Piper of Hameln. And that phrase the ‘pied piper’ has become a metaphor for a person who attracts a following through charisma or false promises.
In tomorrow’s Gospel (Mark 1: 21 -28) People follow Jesus. Word goes out that he can cure people and his followers see him as a kind and good person. In fact they are so impressed with him that they are ‘astonished’. ‘And his reputation rapidly spread everywhere, through all the surrounding Galilean countryside.’
What is it that some people have that makes them powerful orators or speakers? What is it about their words that can be so seductive?
In these very days 80 years ago the German Army was being destroyed at Stalingrad. The German troops on the ground knew the game was up. And yet just two months earlier Hitler gave a speech in Munich ranting on, telling the vast crowd present that victory would be theirs. All through the speech he received tumultuous applause. Carpenters, philosophers, teachers, scientists, doctors, the majority of Germans believed he was the man to make Germany great again.
What did he have that was able to lead people to such darkness and evil?
Isn’t it an age-old problem? In tomorrow’s first reading (Deuteronomy 18: 15 - 20) it’s brought to our attention that there are prophets who do great good but also there are those prophets who can cause terrible harm.
We seem to be living in a time of great divisions. Or maybe better said, people today are more forthright in expressing their views in as strong a manner as possible. It seems people easily get caught up in the passion of a situation and become blinkered to any other way of thinking. The concept of nuance or the possibility of another way is dismissed as weak, even treachery.
Very often in such a climate the person who speaks the loudest, has clear cut and definite solutions wins the day. Social media is a catalyst whereby shouting and stupidity can thrive.
I can honestly say that in the current climate I’m having difficulty whom to follow. Earlier this week listening to a man discuss a matter on television I thought he was talking sense and yet my views and his are diametrically opposed.
Later that evening I was thinking of how parents watch over and guide their children. Parents never want their children to be influenced for the bad by other children they consider not a good influence on them. Parents have that innate sense to protect their children. I’m not at all talking about social class or snobbery.
Parents want the best for their children, they want them to be good people, they want them to be influenced for the good. The good parent will want their child to be in the company of children who are wholesome and bring the best out in their own child.
And on that note children in their innocence can remind their parents when they step out of line.
Goodness does in some extraordinary way diffuse itself. Through good habits we build up a sense for what is right and wrong. That’s what virtue is.
An intelligent and faith-filled approach to reading good literature, including the Scriptures is a key in helping us how we decipher whom to follow.
The kindness and authority with which Jesus speaks in tomorrow’s Gospel proved attractive to the people around him.
I pray that I can be influenced by the wise and kind words of other people and indeed by the words of Scripture too.
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