First Draft #33: a newsletter on public language
Populist truths; Kipling, the King and Christmas; what to do with milestones; Welby bombs
Populist lies flow from an underlying truth
The reason to mistrust the power of rhetorical persuasion, writes Aristophanes in The Clouds, is that the skilled charlatan can “make the weaker argument the stronger”. In this year of elections, in which 40 countries the world over cast democratic votes, the forces of liberal democracy struggled to sound persuasive. In the United States, France and India, for example, the populist argument rang out. In the mouths of Trump and Modi does this not prove the point that the weaker argument has now become the stronger?
Not really. It is true – and in time it will become plain – that the populists really do offer a weak argument. Populists have both a diagnosis and a prescription and both are too easy. The diagnosis is that establishment politics is a conspiracy against the people. The prescription is the populist himself. Elect me, the tribune of the people, and all will be magically resolved. None of this means, however, that the accusation against rhetoric – that it elevates lies to the status of truth – can be upheld. On the contrary, the year of elections shows that the link between persuasion and truth in politics will always be strong.
The populist offers serial falsehoods, but in response to an underlying truth. That bedrock proposition is that the material circumstances of the average voter have been declining, certainly relative to the wealthy but sometimes in absolute terms too. The average voter has been denied a fair share of the benefits of growth, their lives have stopped improving and they are seeking redress. The populist has a weaker argument but a stronger question. Hence, if Kamala Harris sounds complacently distant from the material worries of the electorate and Donald Trump amplifies those concerns, it is hardly surprising that the latter wins the argument.
In a reality in which scrutiny is intense, no entirely false argument will last for long. It might well be tempting to dismiss successful populist as liars all the way through – and in the process to condemn rhetoric as the means by which falsehood can triumph – but that is a counsel of despair. The better response is from within rhetoric itself. The forces of liberal democracy need to understand more and prepare better arguments. Persuasion in a democracy is never a matter merely of truth versus falsehood and even the weaker argument is grounded in something. @PhilipJCollins1
The first Royal Christmas broadcast: the day Kipling became king
‘’I speak now from my home and from my heart to you all; to men and women so cut off by the snows, the desert, or the sea, that only voices out of the air can reach them.’’ These were the words of King George V in the first Christmas broadcast in 1932, a speech that stirred millions ‘’through one of the new marvels of modern Science,’’ — the wireless. But those heard weren’t his. They belonged to Rudyard Kipling. It’s a fascinating moment: a major poet with an unmistakable voice asked to ghostwrite for a king known for barely having one at all.
George Orwell called Kipling a “good bad poet”, capturing his gift for verse that, while unsubtle and jingoistic, was undeniably stirring and accessible. These tendencies were on full display in the broadcast. “It may be that our future may lay upon us more than one stern test,” boomed the King, warming to Kipling’s grandiosity, “but our past will have taught us how to meet it unshaken.’’
This blend of grandeur and simplicity — the language of ‘‘good bad poetry’’ — was perfect for the King’s first Christmas speech. Kipling turned a nervous technological experiment into a message of unity, and transformed a hesitant monarch into a voice of paternal authority. One that cut through snow, deserts and static and into the living rooms of his people. Thousands wrote to describe how moved they had been, and so began the tradition we know today. @camjohnharris
Jargon buster: hitting milestones
It has been noted that, in his Plan for Change speech on 5th December, the Prime Minister made one pledge and three promises in pursuit of thirteen missions. There were also eight milestones, and this was the point where the meaning really fled.
The Prime Minister said repeatedly that his government would “hit” these milestones. Reporters added that the milestones would be “completed” or “met”. If you literalise the metaphor, then “completing” a milestone becomes about making one, “hitting” a milestone would be an odd decision and “meeting” a milestone is nonsense.
A milestone is a marker along the road indicating the distance yet to be travelled. Milestones were first used on the Appian Way and the Golden Milestone was at the centre of Rome. None of them were hit, completed or met. Having passed milestones along the way, the traveller reached the final one. Let’s hope the government can do the same. @PhilipJCollins1
Justin Welby’s comedy debut
Justin Welby substituted standing down for stand-up in his Lords resignation speech, dropping seven jokes in seven minutes – one a minute. Perhaps he forgot the catastrophic failure to act on years of predatory sexual abuse within the Church that led to his departure. ‘’But hey – I am the Archbishop still,’’ he quipped, apparently unaware that to everybody else this was exactly the problem. Clearly he had nothing to say, but he said it anyway: references to his diary secretary, a medieval football joke, and a tangent on getting lost in the Commons transformed what should have been an expression of contrition aimed at victims into a bitter gag-fest aimed at anyone who wasn’t an Archbishop of Canterbury. He should have sought proper guidance - not from God, but from a certain all-loving, all-knowing speechwriting firm. We might have told him what he so desperately needed to hear: Thou Shalt Read the Room. @camjohnharris
LANGUAGE AND BEYOND
Forbes announces the Great Jargon Purge of corporate buzzwords for 2025.
Shortly after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour in December 1941, Winston Churchill traveled to America. On Christmas Eve, he addressed the world via a radio broadcast from the White House. “I spend this anniversary and festival far from my country, far from my family, yet I cannot truthfully say that I feel far from home.”
Shocking revelations about Nobel prize-winning fiction writer Alice Munro have cast her oeuvre in a strange new light. This piece in the New York Times explains all.
During the Wicked press tour, Cynthia Erivo was brought to tears when told fans were ‘’holding space’’ for Defying Gravity, the film’s anthem. Once an obscure therapy term, ‘’holding space’’ has now blown up, and is the newest phrase craze in self-help speak. Kate McCusker asks what it means, if anything.
London Centric founder Jim Waterson reports from the annual Christmas Eve meat auction at Smithfield Market. The future of the iconic centuries old meat market is uncertain after local authorities voted to close it for good three weeks ago.
Jaguar rebrands itself with ‘’copy nothing’’, and in the process forgets everyone, namely those who want to buy their cars.
Giles Wilkes on the tangled language of industrial strategy: “Each sector section includes questions about policy levers that are themselves often pillars. The flow-chart this conjures up is quite a headache to imagine.’’
James Marriot on the creeping empire of jargon: ‘’You will have noticed that the less effective government becomes, the more abundantly it generates pointless language. Politicians used to assume that their survival depended on communicating clearly and directly. Instead, they now lecture us on milestones, deliverables, and ‘mission-led government.’’
New from us
In Prospect magazine, Phil argues for greater federalism.
In CityAM, Alex challenges Trump’s claim that AI threatens speechwriting.
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