Speeches That Changed the World by Simon Sebag Montefiore (April 2019)
This collection of famous speeches was notable mostly for its confirmation of a great Business Bro Truism – people don’t remember what you say, they remember how you made them feel. These speeches, taken out of their moment in the process of being reduced to the inferior form of the print word, seemed to lose quite a bit of the majesty that made them such great works of art at the time of their delivery.
Of course, my nitpicking aside I found plenty of wisdom for my proverbial highlighter. An anti-war message was a common theme throughout these speeches. Some speakers pointed out that losses on both sides mean a war is costly even to victors while others noted that the increasing destructive power of modern weaponry makes war a useless tool for settling disputes. The best idea reframed service to country as doing everything possible to alleviate suffering – from poverty or disease, from ignorance or inequality. Many speeches looked to democracy as a tool for this service. One speech pointed out that democracy never required a wall to keep its people inside (a note that surely referred to the Berlin Wall).
Of course, a democracy unwilling to defend itself or its values is destined for fragility and, eventually, its fall. It does seem like armed combat is inevitable despite the strength of the anti-war message. Many speeches foresaw this conclusion and spoke of ways to alter this destiny. Some noted that indifference was the biggest ally to evil and urged listeners to always respond in the face of visible suffering. Another reminded us that all people are created equal and reinforced the warning that group supremacy constantly undermines this self-evident truth.
Perhaps the most important broad truth from this collection is that genuine goodness is always the biggest threat to those at the very bottom of the moral spectrum. Goodness comes in many forms that these speeches articulated – it could mean refusing to build happiness on the misery of others, for example, or recognizing the humanity in others by refusing to impose definitions on each other. Ultimately, it means refusing to speak differently than how you feel, a fitting insight within a collection of speeches that, in their own unique way, reminded us throughout our history of our shared vision that allowed us to swat aside evil, over and over, in all of its incessant and varying forms.
