Cicero and JFK’s Houston Ministerial Association Speech
Cicero’s De Inventione is addressing the subject of eloquence and rhetoric. He points out that eloquence can be used for both good and evil, he also talks about how eloquence came to be. Cicero says how eloquence when accompanied with wisdom is a good thing but when you speak with eloquence but have no knowledge it is basically pointless. In this book Cicero also talks about the three different types of narration.
I also read JFK’s Houston Ministerial Association Speech. In this speech Kennedy is speaking about how people should not judge him because he is Catholic. Apparently at the time the newspapers were saying that Kennedy was the Catholic’s candidate for president and he said that he was Democrat’s candidate. In this speech Kennedy was using specific events, such as the Alamo, to support his argument that people if people were not going to vote for him it should be because they do not support his political beliefs and not because they think his religion will effect his decisions as president.
In response to the book written my Cicero, I agree with what he had to say about the value of eloquence being accompanied by knowledge. This piece reminded me of Hilter. He was a very convincing speaker and influenced a lot of people by what he said. I think that is an example of how speaking can be used in a negative way. When I read JFK’s speech I thought that everything he said was was powerful and to the point but not harsh in a way to make people think that they are being forced to do what he says. I think that eloquence in speech is a good thing in most cases but when the wrong people are able to convince a large group of individuals to do something it can be horrible.