I went to see Merchant of Venice last night. While there my phone went crazy with msgs saying, 'Have you seen the Arnie speech!' I have now. Wow! Amazing.
- Ethos/pathos galore
- tons of rhetorical devices
But, in particular, it's a great eg of
MY STORY/OUR STORY/WHAT NEXT.
- Ethos/pathos galore
- tons of rhetorical devices
But, in particular, it's a great eg of
MY STORY/OUR STORY/WHAT NEXT.
https://twitter.com/Schwarzenegger/status/1504426844199669762
Arnie starts with a story of going backstage at the world weightlifting championship to meet his Russian hero, Yuri Petrovich, to discover he was a good man. Then he metaphorically takes the Russian people backstage at the theatre of war to reveal their hero, Putin is a bad man.
Such a smart way to connect the literal and the metaphorical, through sharp, vivid imagery and a powerful emotional story which makes us look up with the eyes of a child - the first story inspiring admiration and wonder, the second story inspiring disappointment and shame.
Arnie has always been brilliant at connecting different things together to change people's attitudes to it. In the 1970s movie Pumping Iron, he famously described weightlifting as being like cumming... 'I'm cumming in the gym, I'm cumming at home, I'm cumming backstage'.
Through making this connection, he took a sport that had previously been seen as for geeks and weaklings and turned it into something which appeared sexy! Many in the bodybuilding industry say the 1980s/90s fitness/bodybuilding boom was all down to Arnie...
He delivered a similarly powerful speech after the Capitol riots in which he compared America's democracy to Conan's sword. I've used this as a case study this week! This speech also follows the MY STORY - OUR STORY - WHAT NEXT structure...
The honest references to his father, family and feelings are irresistible, inspiring compassion and empathy. Arnie is a strong man but he knows that strong men are not afraid to show they're vulnerable as well.
His call to action for the Russian people here is very simple, you can be a good man, like my hero Yuri Petrovich. Protest on the streets against the invasion. If you are arrested, failed and beaten, you are a hero. Or you can be a bad man and we'll turn our back on you.
Arnie references Zelensky is Jewish, and that his three uncles were murdered the Nazis. He doesn't directly compare Putin with Hitler as such, but the connection is there - a clear warning where anti-Semitism can lead - also in my mind last night, as I watched Merchant of Venice.
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