Open and honest failure in public debate forges unique and useful moments in yet undeveloped young leaders. Antithetically, untrained orators are often allowed to continue failing with words well into adulthood. Physically vocalizing carefully thought out arguments incorrectly thereby confounds any earlier efforts. Max Borders’ argument against regulation is used in a different context, however a person who can’t regulate his/or her own breathing during an impassioned speech begs the question: how can they be expected to give any convincing arguments? In consideration of this question, we can look at the failures and successes of two historical “Georges”: America’s former president George W. Bush and England’s late King George VI.
America elected a leader for better or worse who made apparent his own fast and loose public speech. George W. Bush, son of an incredibly articulate and gentle war hero, seemed plagued by not just charming imperfections but by the same problem Michael Goodwin mentioned which is that he was not allowed to fail early or often enough. Propped up by his father’s success as businessman and politician, he benefitted to the point that he was able to squander his youth pursuing not social service but self serving addictions. Without painting him too badly, suffice it to say that his words as president were often treated with more than gentle criticism and sometimes incited others to mock him openly.
On the coin’s other side, a speech afflicted George VI, former king of England during World War II, had his own problems with an impediment portrayed in the Hollywood movie “The King’s Speech”. Fixes for finding one’s words involve many variations of methods developed by speech coaches like George's renowned therapist Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush’s character). Logue correctly observes that George VI, played by Colin Firth, specifically stutters more acutely when he becomes confronted with stress. He then prescribes a series of exercises designed to warm and loosen the muscles of the King’s jaw as well as expand and strengthen the muscles surrounding his heart and lungs. The real-life Logue recognized that historically popular solutions to speech impediments including smoking, drinking, and drugging weren’t nearly as effective as the regulation of the breath and the proper formation of syllables using the tongue and mouth.
Given enough motivation and conviction anyone can speak passionately however audiences often mistake feverish or fervent orators for great leaders. The impassioned speaker too regularly allows personal conflicts and bias to cause irrational flare-ups and ill-timed responses as no pause was given to consider a more invested approach. In the case of Lukianoff’s campus censorship, colleges do indeed have an obligation to not only abolish censorship practices but also to encourage the opening and regulation of public forums where students feel safe to hear themselves speak in measured terms. All relative governing tendencies attempt to regulate that which is not understood fully, so we must learn to recognize improper control of those bodily functions controlling us as well.
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