“ A great speech does not just capture the truth of its era; it can also capture the big lie.”
- Simon Sebag Montefiore in Speeches that changed the world
Speeches that moved the masses, speeches that blurred the line between truth and lies. More importantly, a speech that painted a vision, paving the way for the hopeful. Hope, oh yes, hope the devil. I am not a visionary, more of a pragmatic, an idealistic pragmatic. (Well, I’m excited over my latest purchase “Moral Clarity – A guide for grown-up idealists” by Susan Neiman. Wait on for more on this)
I wish I had paid more attention during English class. I wish I had taken more literature classes. I wish I had written more (this excludes engineering reports) There is no doubt that I was born an engineer with a mind for dabbling in physics and math – no regrets on my pursuit of aerospace engineering. It’s just that as I get on with age, I begin to appreciate the presence of art and literature in my life. I enjoyed the Chinese literature classes in secondary school, even though it was delivered by one of the arguably most monotonous sounding teacher. Hey, at least it’s the only class that does not have exams! (We were tested on chinese/Mongolian/cha-cha/ramba/i-can’t-rem-what-else dance then.) One of the most enjoyable classes I took in uni was an English literature class ‘Death and storytelling’. Well, just a bit on the topic, I naively imagined that this class might force me to face up to the harsh reality of death, something which I thought would be something good to learn about. Interestingly, I think I did pretty well for that class, and the prof seemed quite intrigued with the ideas I had, and the ‘unifying’ themes I drew from the awfully morbid books.
- Simon Sebag Montefiore in Speeches that changed the world
Speeches that moved the masses, speeches that blurred the line between truth and lies. More importantly, a speech that painted a vision, paving the way for the hopeful. Hope, oh yes, hope the devil. I am not a visionary, more of a pragmatic, an idealistic pragmatic. (Well, I’m excited over my latest purchase “Moral Clarity – A guide for grown-up idealists” by Susan Neiman. Wait on for more on this)
I wish I had paid more attention during English class. I wish I had taken more literature classes. I wish I had written more (this excludes engineering reports) There is no doubt that I was born an engineer with a mind for dabbling in physics and math – no regrets on my pursuit of aerospace engineering. It’s just that as I get on with age, I begin to appreciate the presence of art and literature in my life. I enjoyed the Chinese literature classes in secondary school, even though it was delivered by one of the arguably most monotonous sounding teacher. Hey, at least it’s the only class that does not have exams! (We were tested on chinese/Mongolian/cha-cha/ramba/i-can’t-rem-what-else dance then.) One of the most enjoyable classes I took in uni was an English literature class ‘Death and storytelling’. Well, just a bit on the topic, I naively imagined that this class might force me to face up to the harsh reality of death, something which I thought would be something good to learn about. Interestingly, I think I did pretty well for that class, and the prof seemed quite intrigued with the ideas I had, and the ‘unifying’ themes I drew from the awfully morbid books.
