Today began with a trip to Spitalfields Market. It was filled with vendors selling clothes and handbags mostly. We expected to see good prices since it's a market and all but that wasn't the case. It was fun to browse around, though.
Next we went to Speakers' Corner at Hyde Park. Every 15 yards or so, there was another person standing on a stool speaking. Most of them were very very skilled and charismatic speakers (which wasn't surprising considering most of them seemed to be regulars.) Jenise's brother (Kyle) once told me that some famous philosopher said that eloquence is the highest virtue. Well, these folks made a convincing counterargument. They were mostly (all?) idiots--like shock jocks who actually believed the garbage they were spewing. It was amazingly entertaining. One of the highlights of the trip so far.
Now for the game. Get out a pen and paper and match the description/quotes with their speakers. A few might surprise you. I'll post the answers in the comments.
1. Discussing "Almost anything." Drew the second biggest crowd there. Very funny.
2. Wants foreigners out of England. "You are all peasants!" Evil incarnate.
3. "Muslims civilized Europe." Cited "actual books!"
4. Espoused "the genius of the black people" and listed all of the bad deeds of the white devils. Said one of the biggest problems in the world right now is misogyny. Then went on to say "all you women are completely ignorant" (because of the revealing clothes). Drew the biggest crowd.
5. Generally had nothing to say. Formerly gave "hugs for free" in the park. Was a prick.
6. Glory of Islam.
7. Glory of Christianity.
8. "Islam is evil" and "Mohamed was a killer."
9. Glory of Islam #2. Mostly intended to get audience to convert. "You get double the rewards from Allah if you aren't born in."
10. "It's going to get worse."
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
G.
H.
I.
J.
Once again, the answers can be found in the comments. Let us know how you did!
Next we went to Speakers' Corner at Hyde Park. Every 15 yards or so, there was another person standing on a stool speaking. Most of them were very very skilled and charismatic speakers (which wasn't surprising considering most of them seemed to be regulars.) Jenise's brother (Kyle) once told me that some famous philosopher said that eloquence is the highest virtue. Well, these folks made a convincing counterargument. They were mostly (all?) idiots--like shock jocks who actually believed the garbage they were spewing. It was amazingly entertaining. One of the highlights of the trip so far.
Now for the game. Get out a pen and paper and match the description/quotes with their speakers. A few might surprise you. I'll post the answers in the comments.
1. Discussing "Almost anything." Drew the second biggest crowd there. Very funny.
2. Wants foreigners out of England. "You are all peasants!" Evil incarnate.
3. "Muslims civilized Europe." Cited "actual books!"
4. Espoused "the genius of the black people" and listed all of the bad deeds of the white devils. Said one of the biggest problems in the world right now is misogyny. Then went on to say "all you women are completely ignorant" (because of the revealing clothes). Drew the biggest crowd.
5. Generally had nothing to say. Formerly gave "hugs for free" in the park. Was a prick.
6. Glory of Islam.
7. Glory of Christianity.
8. "Islam is evil" and "Mohamed was a killer."
9. Glory of Islam #2. Mostly intended to get audience to convert. "You get double the rewards from Allah if you aren't born in."
10. "It's going to get worse."
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
G.
H.
I.
J.
Once again, the answers can be found in the comments. Let us know how you did!
5 comments:
Here are the answers.
1. D
2. C
3. H
4. I
5. F
6. B
7. A
8. G
9. E
10. J
Jason really loved this part of our trip. It was amazing to see all these people gathered together to hear others speak. The two most common themes were the war in Iraq and religion. The "hecklers" were very interesting to listen to. Occasionally they would start up an argument with another person in the crowd. There were two speakers that really frightened me, seriously I was nervous just listening to them. They were the crazy woman and the guy who kept calling white people devils. You could have guessed he was going to cause a ruckus because he had like 5 body gaurds! Anyway, I hope you all are enjoying reading about our trip. It's great hearing from all of you!
Damn, I only got two! And one of them was the "It's going to get worse" guy.
I'm glad you got to go there. I forgot to mention it to you before you went on your trip. When we were there it ws all about the war in Vietnam! Great place to go. Anybody can just get up on a box and talk about anything they want to! Just be prepared for the feedback! :) Free speech at its finest!
Sorry I'm so late reading all of this but I've been bogged down with packing up my entire apartment. This looks like a really interesting experience.
Also, Quintilian is the one who made the assertion about eloquence, unfortunately oration has changed significantly since the first century and now we're stuck pandering rather than true eloquence.
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