Ideal Orator

Throughout our lives, one of the many things that we all have done is listen to a person speak. Whether or not it is on a certain topic or not is not necessarily important but the fact of the matter is that listening is one of the many things that is common to all people. These kinds of happenings can range from just listening to your friends tell you about their day and the things that happened to them throughout to just listening to the news no matter what time in the day that it airs. It can even go into a higher form of the art such as listening to a speech, one of the many that are becoming relevant in today's culture being Ted Talks. These “talks” or any other speech provide us with a sense of knowing more about the world outside of ourselves and beyond the things we gravitate towards and consume.

These topics and levels of speaking range from person to person, but essentially leads itself to a similar outcome. In basic terms listening is supposed to make us more knowledgeable people-or consumers even. Being exposed to wide range of topics like stories or happenings in the world is essentially a passtime of all the people in the world. Let alone us human beings, even the things that exist in the world that aren't homo sapiens such as animals communicate in their own ways. Even though communication that is being exchanged in the world are not comprehensible by human beings, it’s being done by all audible beings in the world in a endless cycle.

The historical background that envelops Cicero is at this point in time information that is readily available to all who seek him out and isn't necessarily hard to find. Even though this fact rings true, one of the harder things to do as it deals with Cicero is finding the revelevancy of his teachings and applying it to one’s own set of experiences. In terms of philosophical cannon, Cicero is by every degree an important thinker and very much a figure formed by the times that he lived in. To go into further detail, Cicero in his prominence is very much a person that came to be well into the times of the Roman empire, essentially during the onset of it’s fall. Even so much so that he’s around during the time of it’s fall and eventually the rise of the likes of Julius Caesar. One of the many things that he played an important role in was essentially phasing in the likes of Greek philosophy into what was known as a Roman setting. One of the major things that Cicero did within his lifetime that ties in with his status as a philosopher and speaker is the fact that he was also a lawyer.

There are many instances, according to records that he had various cases in which he argued for or against a certain person or instance. This can be seen as something that tied to him being what he was due to the fact that due to his extensive knowledge about the topics that he covered he was able to sway an audience into a particular outcome. This can be further references in the fact that along with his many Law encounters, there are also some that ended with major implications in his time and the people around him. 3“At age 30, Cicero decided to begin a political career. His goal was to become a consul. Politicians usually had to climb a political ladder, winning election to several government positions in a certain order before running for consul. Cicero won all his elections and then campaigned for one of the consul positions in 64. ” Many of the things that he went through and experienced throughout his life shaped who was as a person as well as shaped the way he viewed himself as an orator. Beside himself, the many rules and mannerisms that he picked throughout his lifetime can also be applicable to others who wish to become the “ideal orator” as well. In Cicero's books one of the main topic of Book 1 lays out the rubric to being what is considered an “ideal orator. ”

One of the first of many requirements is that a person essentially not to tie oneself to a particular set of rules. This person in particular should find their own ways to gain knowledge and not rely solely on the knowledge and practices of others. “They should not rely on the precepts or the teachers or the methods of practice in general use, but be confident that they can achieve their goals by means that are of a quite different order. ” This rule can ring true to just about anyone because of the fact that many try to recreate the path that another has already ventured to get a similar kind of success of another person. This way of thinking is very volatile in the fact that many factors such as the time difference, the way you go about doing the things that another person did and the fact that if anyone even wants another of the same person are all things that could lead to someone’s downfall. Another one of the requirements as told by Cicero is that an ideal orator must gain a range of knowledge that encompasses many things. “One must acquire the knowledge of a very great number of things, for without this a ready flow of words is empty and ridiculous:. ” This also ranges into another set of requirements basically telling the reader that when speaking the flow in which you present yourself must be one of person who is of sound mind with the information that they have. In other words, actually having background in a very great number of things can essentially make a speaker more apt to speak with wisdom and actually mean what they say. This comes into effect in terms of the speaker being as wise as possible on the subject at hand and having wide array of knowledge and experiences to pull from when giving the breadth of his/her speech.

This is one of the most important aspects of being a speaker and even a high functioning human being in the fact that a person who is just good at one thing or a small multitude of things is aware of a large amount of things going on around them and in the world, in a sense making them and their credibility less than a person who is otherwise familiar with a wide range of things going on and happenings in their life. After reading the book on what is means or at least the qualifications on being an ideal orator my view on information I take in and the sources I take them from has changed drastically. When listening to anyone talk about anything I don’t let my guard down completely and just take the information in about what they're saying and I try my best to be critical about it. One way that I do is by trying to tie the things that is being said if possible to previous experiences that I’ve had in my life to try to see if the things that are being told to me make sense in a way that I can understand.

This part is very important to me in the sense that me understanding the information is a lot better that me understanding in way that is incomplete and in a sense takes away from the whole reason of listening to things in the first place. One of the many things that I have taken away form the text is the fact that I essentially need to question every piece of information that I consume and not take it at face value. In doing this, it’s not to say that all the information that I take in is wrong, but the fact that blindly consuming the information could make me into an incomplete individual without a false sense of reality and the things going on around me. One of the major examples that I can pull from is the new that many watch every day. One of the many things that I do in trying to consume the news is looking at the same story but on a multitude of news channels in an attempt to see in what way the particular station or channel is trying to frame their message. This rang true to me in the fact that in one of our classes, professor Gring told the class that no matter who is speaking and not matter what topic is being covered, that said person is essentially pushing the content into a particular direction in what many would call media framing theory. In conclusion after reading Cicero’s requirements of becoming an ideal orator the way that I view all orators has been changed. Not to retread similar group from the previous paragraph but in all aspects of life the things needed to become an “ideal” orator ring true and is not solely limited to being an orator.

Aspects such as knowing your topic, having a wide range of education and wisdom and questioning social paradigms can easily be a system that is put in place whether you speak in from of a large audience or not. Even going as far as to say even if a person where to not speak at all, these core principles can still easily be applicable. In contrast to the text in which orators can be viewed as something “above” the stature of simple conversation, it is also important that people try to incorporate at last a basis of principles whether talking to a large crowd or not. Ranging from greeting your parents in the morning to telling your friends and classmates goodbye in the afternoon there are plenty of opportunities to become an “ideal orator in everyday situations.