“I dream that one day my four little children will live in the midst of a people who will judge them not by the colour of their skin, but by their character.” (Or: “From Szczecin on the Baltic to Trieste on the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended over the continent.” (And, of course, “Tonight dreams are allowed. Tomorrow is a new day.” (Milan Kučan)
There are few who do not know these famous historical speeches and those who uttered them. Since antiquity, great speeches have shaped the world and changed the course of history. Like so much else, the ancient Greeks are to be thanked for the emergence of rhetoric as a public speaking skill. For Aristotle, whose work Rhetoric was a major influence on its development, oratory was a gift from God. For Cicero, the greatest Roman orator, it was a virtue and an essential ability to persuade. Great public orators were supposed to be distinguished by their thoughtful speeches and carefully chosen vocabulary in order to make the best possible points on important social issues. To do this job, they were trained in schools of rhetoric. Mastery of oratory was a prerequisite for any important public position.
But Adolf Hitler showed his contemporaries that words can also be a highly effective and hypnotic demagogic tool with devastating consequences. And today, we again increasingly have the feeling that oratory is not a value, but rather a manipulative political tool with short-term goals.
But what is it that inscribes a speech in the collective social memory and its author among historical figures? Is it the speaker’s charisma, character, the uniqueness of the circumstances, the resonance of the subject, the way the content is delivered, the receptivity of the audience, or something else, more indefinable? It is probably a mixture of all these, but the fact is that there are no exceptional speakers without mastery of the basics and rules of rhetoric, or oratory as a science. It is also usually the case that above-average speakers are also above-average writers – they have a distinct ability to control their words. Winston Churchill, for example, whose speeches shaped virtually the entire 20th century, won the Nobel Prize for Literature and published more texts than Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare combined.
All those who have become renowned rhetoricians have carefully prepared for this mission, studying other famous orators, practising their speaking styles and tirelessly polishing their texts. They also chose their speaking moments carefully. However spontaneous many memorable speeches may have sounded, little was left to chance in their preparation and delivery. Many are convinced that it was the speeches of the master orator, the American President during the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln, that succeeded in preserving the unity of the United States and the abolition of slavery! The bookworm Abe was well aware of this – the book he never parted with was entitled Lessons in Expression.
Most of the speeches that have had the most decisive impact on social consciousness have been made at turning points in history – just think of the speeches of Dr Martin Luther King Jr, Winston Churchill, Theodore Roosevelt, Mahatma Gandhi. Whether it is the fundamental civil rights of black people, the struggle for independence and anti-colonialism, or the two world wars, these are social milestones that in themselves have shaped the world. Their protagonists have “only” added the icing on the cake with their rhetorical masterpieces.
Last but not least, the role of the crowd and its emotional charge cannot be neglected. When John F. Kennedy uttered the famous phrase I am a Berliner in West Berlin in June 1963, at the height of the Cold War, he had a significant impact on a crowd of almost half a million. His speech became the most famous speech of the Cold War era and a Western symbol of the fight against communism. The audience played a key role in its effectiveness and media resonance. This, of course, was all too well known and successfully exploited by the cursed Kennedy wheel, for JFK was also a highly charismatic figure, and presidential oratory in the USA has a rich tradition and a key role in the governance of the country.
Abraham Lincoln addresses Americans at Gettysburg
This was the case when American democracy was still in its infancy. All US Presidents have had to demonstrate their leadership skills through their speeches. One of those who got away with it was Abraham Lincoln, whose speech at Gettysburg in 1863 often appears in the prestigious first place in lists of the most famous speeches.
It is still regularly commemorated and remembered by Americans today at all important moments of American nationhood. His “government of the people, by the people and for the people” is legendary. Yet history often glosses over the fact that Lincoln essentially borrowed this phrase. In 19th century Europe, it was widely used by campaigners for democratic change, for example by Giuseppe Mazzini, the famous advocate of Italian unification.
The Battle of Gettysburg was a key turning point in the American Civil War (1861-1865) between the North and the South on the issue of the abolition of slavery. Although the defeat of the Confederate forces tipped the balance in favour of the Northern or Federal side, the battle has gone down in history as the bloodiest conflict of the Civil War. Five months after the battle, President Lincoln delivered a short eulogy at the dedication of the cemetery for the fallen soldiers on the battlefield, which is now known as the Gettysburg Address.
In less than three minutes and fewer than 300 words, he outlined the principles of equality of all mankind and all races, which the founding fathers enshrined in the US Declaration of Independence back in 1776. He reminded Americans of the values on which they had collectively founded their new homeland, and described the Civil War as a struggle to preserve them and thus to preserve the United States of America itself. In this way, he spoke to all Americans, not just northerners, and skilfully laid the foundations for post-war reconciliation.
“Rather, it is the task of us who are alive /…/ to take from the respect of the dead a great commitment to the cause to which they have here shown the last, the highest measure of devotion, to express the determination that they have not died in vain, that this nation will experience a new birth of freedom and that the rule of the people by the people for the people will not disappear from the face of the earth.”
Of all his speeches, this one stands out the most because the resonance of the topics it addresses makes it timeless. Lincoln also cleverly appropriated biblical terminology, even though he was not particularly religious himself. This added weight to the speech for very religious Americans at a time of great human loss.
Despite the apparent enactment of equality for blacks after the Civil War, racial strife continued to grow, especially in the South. Thanks to the efforts of Lincoln and his associates, slavery was formally abolished, but it was not until Martin Luther King Jr. that blacks saw a new impetus in the struggle for real equality.
Martin Luther King Jr’s dream
“One hundred years ago, the great American in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the proclamation freeing the slaves. This momentous decree was like a great beacon to millions of black slaves, scorched by the flames of devastating injustice. It shone like a joyful dawn, ending the long night of captivity.” Thus, exactly 100 years later, Martin Luther King Jr. vividly conceived part of his famous ‘I Dream’ speech as a tribute to Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.
But it was not only the dream, but also the demand for a fairer and more racially equal world for black people, that was the main focus of the historic march on Washington on 28 August 1963, where these words were spoken. The march, officially called the March for Jobs and Freedom, was the culmination of the black activist anti-racist movements that had begun, largely because of the intolerable conditions in the highly segregated American South in the 1950s.
The day was organised as a peaceful protest rally in support of the Kennedy administration’s then nascent legislation to end inequality. Speakers were to include many leading figures of the civil rights movement. Under a scorching sun, peaceful protesters from all over America literally flocked to Washington in columns. The 250,000-strong crowd, which included 60,000 whites, represented the most massive protest in US history to date.
As a Baptist preacher and one of the movement’s most active and influential leaders, Martin Luther King Jr. was a skilled speaker with a remarkable gift for inspiring audiences. But he was not the only one, and people heard virtually everything that day on the subject of equality. When, at the end of the rally, he began to read his own speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, where the Gettysburg Address is engraved, there was still no particular electrification among the crowd.
But after reading a few paragraphs, a well-known singer, who had heard King talk about his dreams before, cried out, “Tell them about the dreams, Martin, tell them about the dreams!” At that moment, King put aside his written speech, thought for a few moments and then delivered what is considered one of the most noble political speeches of all time.
“I dream that one day this nation will rise up and live its religion in the true sense. We take these truths for granted: that all men are created equal. I dream that one day, in the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveholders will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood.”
His words resonated around the world. He described race as a dark shadow of humanity, but also opened the door to hope for a better future. Three months later, more than 100 countries adopted the United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Changes in US law followed – the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed racial discrimination, followed a year later by the Voting Rights for All Blacks Act.
But King’s dream remains valid, because the fight for racial equality is far from over. In 1964, King became the youngest ever Nobel Peace Prize laureate. A great advocate of non-violence and peaceful resistance, he is the heir apparent to one of his most influential role models, Mahatma Gandhi.
Great Soul Gandhi – Leave India!
The father of the Indian nation, Mohandas Gandhi, or the Mahatma, or the Great Soul, as the great poet Tagore called him, continues to inspire humanity today through his life’s journey. He has earned the status of an institution during his lifetime, having touched all the most important social issues of the 20th century through his work. Most notably the struggle for Indian independence and anti-imperialism, but also racial equality, social justice, working class rights, education, cultural diversity, the status of women, the issue of war and the list goes on. He was proverbially stubborn and opinionated, and his beliefs were in many ways controversial and are still a source of controversy. They were often progressive yet traditional, often radical yet changeable!
And so was his attitude towards the British Empire. He may be known today as a symbol of Indian independence, but he felt extremely attached to the British as a nation and was even a supporter of the Empire in its early years. “Then it comes to the question of your attitude towards the British. I have noticed a hatred towards them among the people. People say that their behaviour is repugnant to them: they don’t distinguish between the British Empire and the British people – for them the two concepts are one and the same /…/ It’s a feeling we have to get rid of.” (All India Congress Party meeting, 8 August 1942).
Gandhi’s political and ideological activism matured gradually, along with his personal growth and the valuable experience he gained both during his studies in England and his service in South Africa. He personified the struggle for India’s independence only relatively late, when he returned to his homeland after a long sojourn in South Africa. There, he was marked by racial hatred and discrimination against the white population over the Indian population. His first political struggles were therefore directed towards improving the legal arrangements for Indians in South Africa.
On his return home, he also saw British-Indian relations in a different light, and it was clear to him that Indians could only live proudly and true to their millennia-old traditions, religion and culture once they were free from the shackles of empire. As he said himself, he saw that on their own soil they were only second-class citizens, kowtowing to their English masters, adapting to their way of life and adopting their values. This last, in particular, pained him very much, now that he was already a passionate nationalist and patriot.
“I don’t think there has ever been a democratic struggle for freedom as pure as ours in the history of the world. /…/ In a democracy as I conceived it, a democracy created by non-violence, all will be equally free. Everyone will be his own master. So today I call on you to join the fight for such a democracy. Once you realise this, you will forget the differences between Hindus and Muslims, and you will see yourselves only as Indians engaged in a common struggle for independence.”
Thus, Gandhi addressed the All India Congress Party, demanding Indian independence. It was declared by the British Parliament in 1947. His great wish that the new country should be free of Hindu-Muslim divisions did not materialise, however, and the Muslim-majority north-west seceded to form Pakistan.
But the Leave India speech did have far-reaching consequences. As he made clear, non-violence was the fundamental guiding principle of his political action. If anything, he had an unquestionable moral integrity precisely in spreading the concept of non-violent resistance or ‘ahimsa’ and civil disobedience or ‘satyagraha’ – his extreme fasts and hunger strikes were often on the verge of survival. “God has offered me a priceless gift in the form of ahimsa weapons.”
But to live up to his principles and spread his message, he also had to overcome his own character flaws. Quiet and shy by nature, he never liked to expose himself in public – as a schoolboy, he would literally run home after school just so he wouldn’t have to talk to anyone. Today, he is one of the most quoted speakers of all time! As such, he stands alongside his contemporary, Winston Churchill, who viewed imperialism as one of the greatest achievements of the British Empire and derogatorily called Gandhi a “half-naked fakir”.
Winston Churchill – Blood, toil, tears and sweat
Another multi-faceted figure, Winston Churchill is therefore regarded above all as the politician who set the limits to Hitler’s bloodthirsty march across Europe, but he was also a fierce defender of the British Empire, its supremacy, and the British people’s divine mission to shape the world order in their own way. Many of his statements would today brand him a racist.
Churchill had an enviable number of talents and abilities, as well as eccentric habits. Politician, writer, journalist, orator, historian, painter, war officer – there are clearly no shoes too big for some individuals!
Perhaps even more than the politician who changed the course of the Second World War, he is known for his many astute speeches. One of the best depictions of him, and one that had far-sighted consequences, was his first inter-war address to Parliament just days after he became Prime Minister in 1940. In it, he signalled the strength of will, passion and faith with which the British people would fight the enemy.
“You ask what our policy is. I can say: to wage war on sea, on land and in the air, with all the force and power God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny that is unparalleled in the dark, deplorable list of human crimes. /…/ You ask what our goal is. I can answer in one word: it is victory, victory at any cost, victory in spite of all violence, victory no matter how long and difficult the road to it may be, for without victory there is no survival. /…/ no survival for the British Empire, no survival for all that the British Empire stood for /…/.”
He confidently and unhesitatingly outlined the circumstances in which Britain found itself, and thereby won its unwavering confidence. He showed himself to be a leader, confident in himself and in a nation that should share only one common goal – victory!
But in fact Churchill seriously considered that he might have been able to prevent the bloodshed if he had made a peace treaty with Hitler, his mortal enemy! This historical fact has remained largely hidden, as it could have undermined the public image of an unquestioning and character-building man that had been built up about him. That he hesitated when taking one of the most important decisions of his life shows, however, with some distance in time, that he was in fact a man of deep and sober reflection, who wanted to consider all the options in detail.
And he was indeed a very studious and hard-working man. Even if he was drinking whisky and soda from the early hours of the morning onwards, he would prepare his speeches for 24 hours at a stretch. Like other great orators, he spent an incredible amount of time studying rhetoric and famous speeches, from the Greeks and Romans onwards. The fact that he had a speech impediment is also striking, but this did not limit him. He was simply fascinated by the power of words; his summer reading was, for example, transcripts of parliamentary debates. He was constantly on the lookout for new words and phrases to weave into his speeches and texts, because he believed that one could only be influential if one was also receptive to the influence of others.
Queen Elizabeth I, Winston’s compatriot, the founder of the British Empire and one of the 10 most influential Britons of all time, also believed in the necessity of careful preparation of speeches.During her 44-year reign, the British Isles were at a crossroads between a provincial and Catholic past and an imperial and Protestant future.
Elizabeth I: “I will be your general!”
The year was 1588. The Spanish fleet was rolling towards England in all its might. England, then in the midst of a cultural boom under the remarkable Elizabeth I, was militarily weak and religiously divided compared to Spain. King Philip of Spain, a fervent Catholic, wanted to subdue England, a recent convert to Protestantism, and restore her Catholic splendour at any cost.
The relationship between the Spanish and English crowns was intertwined dynastically, but complicated mainly by a religious rift. Queen Elizabeth I inherited many challenges from her infamous ancestors, Henry Tudor VIII and her half-sister Bloody Mary I, who knew no boundaries when it came to dealing with their opponents. The former was a born-again Protestant who crossed England with the Pope and the Catholic Church, mainly so that he could divorce Philip’s great-aunt, Catherine of Aragon, and, desiring a male heir, marry Elizabeth’s mother. Catherine’s daughter, Mary I, who succeeded to the throne after her half-brother’s sudden death, was a staunch Catholic as a mother and a vindictive ruler as a father.
After his calculating marriage to Philip, all the signs were that their future heir would take the English crown and unite the monarchies in a Catholic union. But Mary died quickly and childless, and the Protestant Elizabeth reigned again. Philip, however, did not give up easily.
His tactics were initially peaceful, as he offered his hand in marriage to Elizabeth’s half-sister Mary, as he had done before, but the headstrong ruler categorically refused all the time. Marked by the tragic end her mother had met, she decided not to submit herself to any man.
England was then to be conquered by force. But again it did not work out as he had planned, and the English fleet, through a series of coincidences – weather, poor communication among the Spanish, and sickness and starvation on board their ships – achieved a lucky victory over the mighty Spanish Armada. Towards the end of the humiliating fighting, Elizabeth made her way to the military base of Tilbury to boost the morale of her troops before the final battles. Whether her speech that day was indeed decisive for victory is not historically supported by the facts, but it did give her complete confidence in her authority as a ruler and as a person.
“I am aware that I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart of a king, even of an English king, and I despise Parma, Spain, or any prince of Europe, if he should dare to invade beyond the limits of my kingdom; and rather than suffer any dishonour, I will myself defend the kingdom with arms; I will be your general, your judge, and your mercenary, who will reward your virtues on the field of battle.”
She has proven to be a true PR master! She distributed her motivational speech to all commanders, who repeated it word for word to their troops while she was speaking. This way, even those whose voices she did not reach heard it. She also proved that women leaders could be equal to men, which was even more difficult in her time. She defied the established rules and remained true to her principles.
Elizabeth I united a nation that turned its appetite for supremacy outwards, and the birth of the British Empire was assured. On the other side of the Channel, a few centuries before, another heroine of her time, Joan of Orleans, had kept the French kingdom safe from the English – her victories over the English armies had made her one of the bravest commanders of all time.
Ivana of Orleans – the symbol of France
Alongside Queen Elizabeth I, she is one of the most frequently depicted and celebrated women in history – in painting, literature, music, film – the Virgin of Orleans could almost be said to be a myth rather than a real historical figure. And indeed, the mission of today’s impeccable French national heroine is rooted in unverifiable and personal testimonies. At the tender age of thirteen, this simple peasant girl is said to have heard for the first time the voices of God and seen apparitions of saintly images urging her to join the French army.
She lived during the Hundred Years’ War between England and France, and during her lifetime France was further plagued by internal strife, with the scales tipping heavily in England’s favour. This is how she addressed the French heir to the throne, Charles VII, when she first managed to break through to him: “Noble King, my name is Ivana the Virgin, and the King of Heaven sends me to liberate Orléans and to bring you to Reims, where you will be crowned and anointed. By the command of the Lord, I declare to you that you are the King’s son and the rightful heir of France!”
Thinking he had little to lose, the King put her in charge of the army, which soon began to reap its first successes. Ivana proved to be an invincible and courageous warrior, who also exuded great moral authority.
She achieved what she had promised Charles – that he would be crowned as the only true King of France – by liberating northern and eastern France in 1429. But as the struggle for the complete liberation of France continued, she was captured by English sympathisers and convicted of heresy and witchcraft in a mock trial. Her courageous warning to the President of the Court, “You say you are my judge, but I do not know whether you are: but take care not to judge falsely, for you would expose yourself to great danger.”, has gone down in history.
But a 19-year-old girl was still burnt at the stake.
Twenty years later, she was declared innocent at a retrial, and soon afterwards a martyr. Five hundred years later, she was declared a saint. Today, another teenage Pakistani human rights activist, Malala, is showing incredible strength and courage.
Malala Yousafzay: “How dare they?”
She was a 15-year-old Pakistani girl who wished that she and her peers could just go to school in peace. But this simple wish of hers was not in keeping with the place or the time in which she was born. That is why the Taliban shot her in the face. That was in 2012.
And that’s when the gentle but determined teenage activist was recognised by those who had never known her before. She began publicly campaigning for girls’ and children’s rights to education at the tender age of 11. Her first public speech was entitled How dare the Taliban take away the fundamental right to education?
When the Taliban closed girls’ schools in her district, she started writing an anonymous blog for the BBC’s local bureau about her life, Taliban violence, the situation of women and girls, and social conditions in general. With the support of her progressive-minded father, who opened a number of private schools in Pakistan, she became increasingly influential and media-savvy. And at the same time disturbing. So on that fateful day in October, when she was hit in the head and back by three bullets at point-blank range, she should have died.
But Malala, contrary to expectations, survived. “They thought the bullets would silence us. But they failed. And then out of the silence came a thousand voices. /…/ The only thing that has changed in my life is that weakness, fear and hopelessness have died. Strength, determination and courage were born. I remained the same Malala. My aspirations are the same. My hopes are the same. My dreams are the same.” This is how she spoke in her first public appearance since her recovery during the 2013 Youth Convention at the United Nations.
And thus took her noble fight for the right of all children to education to the world stage, and extended it to advocacy for world peace, for children’s rights and for the fight against poverty. Today, she has an influence like no other teenager and is the voice of all children fighting for the right to education. She has received a myriad of awards and accolades, becoming the youngest Nobel Laureate of all time. Her efforts have directly influenced, among other things, the passage of Pakistan’s first Right to Education Act and, globally, the creation of the UN Youth Education Crisis Committee. They estimate that, at current rates of progress, all girls will be in school by 2086.
The United Nations has declared 12 July, her birthday, as Malala Day.
“Brothers and sisters. Remember, Malala’s day is not my day. It is the day of every woman, every boy and girl who raised their voice for their rights. /…/ Terrorists have killed thousands and injured millions. I am just one of them. And here I stand … one girl among many. I speak not for myself, but for all girls and boys. I raise my voice – not to shout, but so that you can hear those without a voice. Those who have fought for their rights. For the right to live in peace. For the right to be treated with respect. For the right to equal opportunities. For the right to education.” (UN, July 2013).
No one could have achieved a more opposite effect than Malala in the world than Adolf Hitler.
Adolf Hitler – Master of the Dark
Everything has been written about it, if not too much. But if anything, his agitational speeches have undoubtedly changed the world forever, and a look into the background of their creation should serve as a reminder of how quickly words can turn us into tools of the political apparatus.
“I know that it is harder to win people over with the written word than with the spoken word. I know that every great movement on this Earth can thank great speakers, not great writers, for its growth.” So Hitler wrote in his book My Struggle and accordingly developed his propaganda machine, the central symbol of which was the cult of his personality. He carefully nurtured and consolidated it, not least through his enviable arsenal of speeches – more than 5 000 of them.
Just how did a man of average looks, short stature, booming voice, sweaty hands, rebellious character and reclusive tendencies manage to charm the masses time and again?
He has perfected every single performance, every gesture, facial expression, look, he has stood for hours in front of the mirror and rehearsed. He always wrote his speeches himself, for many evenings and nights in a row; his creative process was very reminiscent of Churchill’s. But the end result was fundamentally different – Hitler’s speeches were designed to deliberately incite and mislead the masses. Their execution was a spectacle. Classical music was played before his arrival on stage, soldiers performed with various synchronised choreographies, flags, Nazi symbols. Then the great leader made his theatrical entrance, raised his right hand, adjusted his crosspiece, glared at the audience and, with a mixture of demagogy and magnetism, led the crowds into the invincible thousand-year Reich. The speeches were short, punchy and clear, devoid of complicated information and unfamiliar words – everyone could find something in them, however full of inaccuracies and lies they were.
“/…/ My whole life has been nothing but a single struggle for my people, for their reemergence, for Germany. /…/ There is one word I have never known, it is called: capitulation. /…/ At this moment I want to assure everyone around us that November 1918 will never happen again in German history!” (Speech on the occasion of the attack on Poland, 1 September 1939).
He was greatly helped by the growth of the mass media, especially radio, through which the Nazis kept spinning his speeches, distributing postcards with his most important statements and, of course, in the cinemas, propaganda films that further glorified him.
Towards the middle of the Second World War, it became clear that Hitler would meet an inglorious end. The cries for a new, radically different post-war order grew louder and louder. One of those who successfully worked to rebuild the foundations of peace in Europe while it was still in post-war ruins was Robert Schuman, one of the founding fathers of the European Union.
Robert Schuman – Towards a united Europe
Railway station, roundabout, statue. In Brussels’ European Quarter, it’s hard not to think of Robert Schuman. But that’s how it is when you’re the father of revolutionary proposals for European countries to work together.
Borders were a constant in Schuman’s life. He grew up in Luxembourg, but he was German because his father was born in Lorraine, which was then part of Germany. Then, at the age of thirty-two, he became French when Lorraine was returned to France after the First World War.
After the Second World War, he entered the international political arena as French Foreign Minister. In addition to his involvement in the creation of the Council of Europe, Schuman is best known for his proposal, presented on 9 May 1950, to bring French and German steel and coal production under common control. The joint exploitation of these basic raw materials for the manufacture of weapons would make war between countries unfeasible. At the same time, it would help economic growth and improve living standards, first in the region and later in all the countries that would join such an organisation.
Schuman’s words were the trigger for the idea of European cooperation, the subject of much debate, to become a reality.
“Europe will not happen overnight or according to a single plan. It will be built through concrete achievements that will first create real solidarity. Uniting the peoples of Europe requires the old opposition between France and Germany to be overcome. /…/ The unification of coal and steel production must, as a first step towards the union of Europe, provide immediately for the laying of common foundations for economic development and thus change the fortunes of those regions which have long been subjected to the production of the military munitions from which they have suffered most.” (Schuman Declaration, Paris, 9 May 1950)
Today we know this idea as the Schuman Declaration. One year later, the newly created European Coal and Steel Community included France, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. Schuman became a central figure in European politics and in 1958 was elected the first President of the institution that was the forerunner of the current European Parliament.
The Schuman Declaration and the model of international cooperation at its heart were the first steps towards today’s European Union, and today we celebrate 9 May as Europe Day.
The first President of the Slovenian state, Milan Kučan, an extremely skilful, if not the most skilful, spokesman of independent Slovenia, has always been a great advocate of a united Europe without borders and of resolving social and political issues in a non-violent way.
Milan Kučan – “Tomorrow is a new day”
“Being born gives you the right to dream. By working, one gets the right to bring life and dreams closer together. Yesterday, we brought the two together; for ourselves, for the many generations of Slovenians who long ago dreamt the same dream, and for the future generations who will build a new world on these dreams. /…/ Since yesterday, Slovenians have our own country /…/
So far, history has not been kind to us. We have had to work hard for everything. That is why we have endured. We are on our own! /…/
We have lived in community with many. In our consciousness, borders are not fences. We were an open space for spiritual and other currents. Borders were set by others, forcing us where we did not want to go. Now a Europe is emerging that can no longer live with borders /…/.”
What follows is the most famous quote of independent Slovenia. It was written the day after the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, on 26 June 1991. The next day, the Ten-Day War began.
“Tonight, dreams are allowed. Tomorrow is a new day.”
A word of hope for a better world
In the 2500-year history of oratory, which began in parallel with the emergence of democracy in Ancient Greece, there are many great orators. But the great ones, those who can make a real difference in the world through thought, deed and word, are few and far between. Their rhetorical skills reflect the multiplicity of their talents.
It is also worth pointing out that public speaking and oratory are more valued in the Western world, and especially in the Anglo-Saxon world, and therefore much more present in the educational process. This is also very evident in all the existing collections of the world’s best speeches.
And yet, we could mention many more speakers, the above selection is just a colourful mix from different periods of history, different parts of the world, different fields of endeavour. Scientists are also among the great orators, and one of them is the great Galileo Galilei, the medieval mathematician and astronomer. His scientific discoveries earned him the enmity of the Church. Because he insisted that the Earth was not the centre of the universe and that it was moving, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for heresy. To avoid the stake, he publicly recanted his teachings in a famous recantation, which he reportedly concluded in a whisper as follows: “And yet it goes round and round.”
It is a telling fact that, with very few exceptions, men have been among the biggest speakers. This reflects the position of women in society in the past and even today. Public service is (was) reserved primarily for men. As the legendary women’s rights campaigner Emmeline Pankhurst said in her speech on the position of women at the beginning of the 20th century: “Politicians have a habit of talking to women as if there were no laws that affected women. ‘The fact is’, they say, ‘that a woman’s place is a woman’s home. A woman’s interests are nurturing and bringing up children. /…/ Politics has nothing to do with these matters, so it does not concern women’.”
But as most of the greatest speakers have shown us, the hope for a better, more peaceful and more equal world is still a constant for humanity.
