Marwell & Schmitt's Taxonomy Influence Tactics Post- The sad life of Snow

For this final post I wanted to find a video that was different than the others that I had used. I thoroughly love the passion of this lady and her courage to stand up for her cause. She also gets extra points in my book for creativity and courage.

In this video a lady walks into a restaurant and tells everyone her little girl was abused and would have been murdered if she had not been rescued. How horrible! Or, just watch the video and you can judge for yourself while you either laugh or cry along with her.

There are many of the Marwell & Schmitt's Taxonomy Influence Tactics that are used throughout this video. The main message was that meat is not food, it is violence. The nature of the topic death and abuse tends to be more negative than positive. Therefore most of the negative influence tactics were used in this speech.

We begin with Negative Expertise tactic. This lady uses this by portraying herself as the mother and protector of her daughter who assures us that life will be bad for us if we continue in our same behaviors. This tactic also leads into her Moral Appeal tactic. She makes a claim to the moral decency of the restaurant patrons to stop killing her babies and putting them on plates.

She really hits hard with the Negative Self-feeling tactic as she goes on and on about how bad everyone would feel about themselves if it was their little girl that was being abused and they did nothing about it. This tactic was pretty much a theme throughout the speech from chicken to egg and everything between. In the end she even challenged the patrons to think of her daughter's name every time they saw someone eating an egg or the body of one of these precious individuals.

Some of the other influence tactics like Negative Altercasting and Negative Esteem of Others are not directly highlighted but more implied in her speech. The implication of Negative Altercasting is felt when she claims that businesses like this restaurant are evil and bad and the patrons don't want to be bad like them, so they should stop abusing the poor and innocent children by putting their bodies on plates.

We also see the Negative Esteem of Others inferred as she urges the patrons to stop smiling and laughing about this situation, because it is not funny to her precious daughter. Her daughter and sisters wanted nothing more than to just live and who are these people to smirk and joke about this serious problem.

As we look at process premises, we see that emotional needs ran high on the chart for this speech. The lady wanted more than anything to have her audience feel what she was feeling about her child. She wanted them to feel what it would be like to be left behind, sharing the need that these precious beings have to just live. These emotional needs where being met as she furthered her argument with plenty of fear and guilt. I feel that she was not very effective in making this happen though.

This lady also looked to persuade her audience's attitudes through their emotions. Her metaphor of her chicken being an abused child that was rescued was used as motivation to push for change in peoples attitudes toward the issue. Equating the eating of chicken to violence towards children was a creative and potentially powerful way to do this.  

Even though this is by far not one of the most motivational speeches ever given, it does a great job highlighting many of the negative Marwell & Schmitt's Taxonomy Influence Tactics.

(If anyone knows how she got milk from a chicken, please let me know.)

Reich's Cultural Parables Post

This particular speech I chose for two reasons. First, it oozes with inferred references that highlight Reich’s "Mob at the Gate"cultural parable. The second reason is because I know how much our beloved instructor admires and loves Brother Beck. (I am also glad our beloved instructor has a sense of humor.)

Glenn Beck gave this speech in 2013 at the Christians United for Israel, Washington Summit. Beck has established his media stronghold on the basis of America being a great country which was established for the purpose of saving mankind from their wicked ways. Despite America’s greatness, Beck showcases the dark forces that have been whittling away at the goodness here from within. He believes in the strong foundation established in the past and that that will lead us all to peace and prosperity after a time of trial and tribulation.


This speech is quite long, and I would encourage you to watch all of it, but the first and last ten minutes hit all of the necessary points for understanding the "Mob at the Gate" parable.

This particular speech is powerful and poignantly adapted to show America as the “shining light on the hill” as Beck referred to it many times in his speech accompanied with the applicable biblical and pilgrim references. He also shared the story of fighting the Barbary pirates in America’s first war as a nation, and how we were the only ones even then who would face these foes. Jefferson even had the Koran published in America so people could read it and determine for themselves if this was a good cause to be fighting.

Beck then shared how we are “key” to the restoration of Israel and that without us they could not stand. We are their protectors and must stand united in order for them to prosper. This again shows how perfectly it fits into Reich’s cultural parable.

He continues to feed the flames by sharing how evil infiltrated the European nations during the World Wars. This part was quite fascinating since he used actual historical relics from the time to show the evil. He again pushed forward the notion that we were the saviors in those times and we will have to be once more.

He followed this up with a warning that we are on a course reminiscent of biblical prophecy. We must stay strong and true or we will also be infected with the evil that tears the soul of nations apart. This furthers the second concept of the parable about the fear we have because of our vulnerability a openness that we may succumb to the evil that may come from abroad.

He also shared how the first great seal of our nation was established on principles of us being a virtuous and good people who will stand to protect others in their affliction. He then went into detail about the Statue of Liberty and what symbols it has that adds to the ideals that we are a nation of light and hope to the world.

His last stand for his case is his appeal that the youth are the answer. We must raise them to be the protectors. We must not let them be overcome by the evil of the outside world. They are our future and the future for all other nations to find peace in. By including the youth, Beck takes Reich’s cultural ideals well into the future as a new generation is taught these ideals.

Also in this speech, Beck hits on all of the process premises. He initiates our basic needs by first telling us how bad things are and that we are the need for other nations. He focuses our attention back to our roots while giving us a sense of power because of where and how we live.

He also uses a lot of emotion in his speech. He is typically a crybaby anyways, but in this speech he effectively draws the audience through fear of the future, guilt for letting down their guard, anger over how the government is handling things, pride for our heritage, and ultimately the happiness and joy we will feel when we have done all we can and have found our own peace.

The process premise of attitude was just as well administered throughout the speech. He made his audience think through his line of logic. He appealed to their emotions with passion from his soul. He challenged them to take the behavioral steps to stand with each other and with Israel.

The final process premise is about consistency. He created a cognitive dissonance throughout his speech, but then reassured his audience that as Christians we know what the outcome will be in the end regardless of what happens between now and then. This attitude taken resolves any dissonance incurred.

Despite the predictability of the speech topic and its direction, this was a great example of Reich’s "Mob at the Gate"cultural parable.

Delivery Chronicles- Conflict and Perspectives

The idea of preparing a hip-pocket speech was not as difficult as anticipated after it finally hit me that I should choose a topic that I am passionate about and can know from my hip-pocket. (Yes, I suffer from thick-skull syndrome.)

The topic I finally chose was that of Conflict and Perspectives. This relates to how our differing perspectives internally and externally are constantly being challenged and we must be open to viewing those different perspectives otherwise we will be in conflict. I also shared how we then cast around and even troll for others to join our internal conflicts. The resolution of course is to look at and sometimes change our perspective on that subject in order to resolve our conflict.

The greatest challenge I faced for this speech was gathering a crowd. My audience ended up being most of my extended family on my wife's side. Once a month we all get together to catch up on news and of course eat. This month was no different, except I told everyone that I would like to give a speech for my class. They were thrilled to hear about my topic and agreed to do a short evaluation afterword.

I was hoping that only the adults would want to stay and listen, but it ended up that the little children were anxious to see what I was doing as well. So, I adapted my speech for ages three to seventy.

I began by using my laptop to show an example of differing perspectives. This was quite effective in catching everyone's attention. I then introduced my topic of conflict. I kept my audience involved in the speech by using analogies and examples backed by pictures. For the children I also used a small fishing pole with a stuffed animal tied on to the line. When I explained how we cast out our conflicts in an attempt to catch others and involve them in our conflict with us, I used this prop to effectively keep their attention. The adults related well to this too.

For the speech evaluation I handed it to all of the adults and asked them to please be brutally honest in their evaluation. (My almost eighteen year old daughter was the most brutal, but she has taken speech and debate in school for years.) I also asked them to comment on any other issues that they noticed that may have added or detracted from the speech. One commented that they appreciated that I kept eye contact with them instead of just talking to hear myself talk.

For further evaluation and in order to see if they had learned anything from the speech, I also asked them to write down something that they took away from the speech. I was pleasantly surprised at the messages that were gleaned from what I had shared. One person shared that they felt the message was just for them and that they would change the way that they looked at conflict from now on.

I learned a ton from this experience. I realized that I can give a great speech without notes and memorization, especially if it is a topic that I am passionate about. I also found out that I like using the word "okay" to transition instead of "um". I also learned that even though I may not say everything in a speech that I wanted, it tends to work out just right when you focus on the needs of the audience. 

 

Outside speech- evaluation form ideas

Hey everyone,
I have heard a lot of talk and worry about the outside speech evaluations. I've had the same concerns, but the best advice to myself and you is to keep it simple.
I have copied a speech competition evaluation form below to give you some ideas of the categories and presentation skills that you can use in your own personal evaluation form.

Good luck and see you all on Tuesday night for all kinds of fun and excitement.