Language Intelligence: Lessons On Persuasion From Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln, And Lady Gaga (2012) - Plot & Excerpts
You can almost get what this book has to offer just from it's table of contents. Romm makes the case that persuasion at a mass scale (eg, political campaigns, advertising, pop artists) succeed based on a few principles, each of which is a chapter in this book. The most fundamental are 'short words win' and 'repeat, repeat, repeat', 'repeat, repeat, repeat'. This may seem obvious to some, but this book is full of examples where these points were not followed. (Here's one: John Kerry, editing out parts of his speechwriters' work as 'too slogany' on his way to losing the presidential election.) Advertiser already know this, he is trying to get this info out to a broader audience, particularly activists in his field of global warming.It's a very important point about the difference between mass communication vs communication among specialists in a particular field. Among specialists one makes a oint by supplying data and analysis within a framework of established terminology, etc, etc. But with mass communication many in your mass audience don't have the time or the inclination to give you a careful listen and look up the facts. So ya gotta bombard them with simple phrases that get a smidgen of their attention and, hopefully, steer their interest your way. It may seem not pretty, we'd all like a world where everyone gave careful consideration to every issue at hand (or at least MY issue!), but that's not the world we live in.He also demonstrates how master speech writers (as well as Bob Dylan, Lady Gaga, Shakespeare, and the authors of the King James Bible) use metaphors and extended metaphors to convey more sophisticated messages. Once the mass audience understands that you are basically saying 'We're up Shit Creek without a paddle', then you can start to talk about the paddle you have to offer and the the source of the shit and so on without having to construct a detailed scientific analysis of, say, the irreversibility of climate change. So using metaphors and other figures of speech we avoid being condemned to dumbed-down language with mind-numbing repetition of simple phrases (although that will always be part of the game) - an articulate campaign can draw people into their metaphor and get them to take a closer look at the issues. One must use the simple language to get people's attention and, once one has their ever-so-brief attention, one may slip in a metaphor, then if they are still paying attention, one may extend that metaphor and so on until hopefully some of your audience are actually examining the true situation beyond the metaphor... and perhaps the rest are vaguely sympathetic enough to vote/buy your way.I think this book is persuasive if you already agree with it's points on some level, but it's not like the level of argument is incontrovertable. It's more like he points to speeches of Lincoln and Churchill and asserts that certain devices made them effective, devices that we can all employ equally well. But there's not much in the way of hard evidence (quantitative analysis and such) his ideas make for effective communication. If you agree with his point (and I generally do) then this will remind you of what you already know but perhaps ignored or forgot. But if someone doesn't want to accept Romm's main points, then there is nothing in this book that is convincing enough for force one to change one's mind.The title of the book "Language Intelligence" strikes me as awkward and doesn't follow his own advice of 'short words win'. Maybe it's supposed to be a metaphor for "Emotional Intelligence". I guess he's not trying to reach such a broad audience with that title. He reached me, anyway. :)Note that the book is based entirely on the English language, and mostly US culture. It would be interesting to look at how well these ideas apply to other languages and cultures. This was a great introduction to rhetorical methods that have been used throughout time. The Bible and Shakespeare are used as examples throughout the book to show different figures of speech. Modern day politicians often use rhetoric and the ones who know how to use it well are often successful. An interesting point the author made is that facts cannot persuade someone who has been convinced by rhetoric. It opened my eyes to some of the ways words can be used to persuade or sway people and I am more aware of these figures of speech in my everyday conversations with people, when watching the news ad when conversing with salespeople. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who is interested in becoming a better communicator.
What do You think about Language Intelligence: Lessons On Persuasion From Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln, And Lady Gaga (2012)?
Incredibly insightful into language and how powerful it can be.
—Shelby21
