Two short videos: Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Ben Affleck

St. Paul to the Romans:

     "You ask how shall people believe in Him, if they have not heard of him? How can they hear, without a preacher?

     I tell you that faith cometh from hearing the sound of the spoken word."

            

The 2017 movie, The Darkest Hour, concluded with words that summed up Winston Churchill’s leadership in Britain. Lord Halifax said of Churchill, "He mobilized the English language and sent it into battle."

Churchill made people believe that Britain could survive.

This blog has repeatedly expressed frustration with President Biden. He tries, but persuasive communication is simply beyond his capability. He cannot do a key part of his job. The president is not a manager of a bureaucracy. The president is a leader. The power of a president is the power to persuade. 

Biden was an acceptable alternative to Trump and a majority of Americans wanted to excise the Trump malignancy. We weren't fussy. Since we weren't agreed on which alternative to Trump we wanted, Americans chose the one that was most familiar and generic: Biden. Now, 14 months into his presidency, Biden's limitations are fully revealed, and they were not resolved by his holding the office. He cannot express a narrative of economic and moral recovery. He cannot make Americans feel there is a positive national direction. He cannot persuade or inspire anyone who is not already committed to his partisan team. Therefore, the Republican strategy of obstruction is working. Even actions which should be easy and which should make Americans of both parties proud, like the elevation to the Supreme Court of an obviously well-qualified Appellate Court Judge, turns into an ugly partisan slog. 

Today I ask readers to observe two short videos. They make a simple point, the power of the spoken word when done by a skilled practitioner. I don't understand the Ukrainian in the first video, and it doesn't matter. Its power is in its simplicity. We hear the message: We are here. It is 31 seconds. Take a moment.

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The second video is of Ben Affleck, talking straight to the camera. This week high-achieving students learned which colleges accepted their applications. This is a moment of widespread disappointment for many young people. It is a time of massive rejection. Affleck grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts and attended high school at the edge of the Harvard campus. Harvard accepted 3% of its applicants this year.  Out of over 400 Oregon applicants, about seven were accepted. Hear what he says.

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In powerful communication the messenger and message content are a single thing. The right messenger, with the right message, done the right way, changes people. We believe.