[Xmca-l] Re: Trump's "talking" versus "speaking"

Tue Jan 24 07:22:54 PST 2017

Another irony that hasn't been mentioned is that this distictive speaking/
talking style flagged by McWhorter made him unusually effective as a
campaigner where the goal was to create chaos and premature action, yet
would undermine his ability to be an effective (or safe) president and
doesn't "fit." This is relevant insofar as it emphasizes the new experience
of hearing him speak this way *as president* as opposed to
president-wannabe. In the inauguration speech, this person who is known for
talking not speaking attempts to speak formally, which creates yet another
split between taking that pseudo-formal language literally and taking it
ironically.

So it is not just the difference between reading him literally and reading
him ironically, but that what is formal and what is literal (as well as
what is informal and what is indirect, and whether he is a "formal" leader
or informal television personality) become tangled up with each other as he
transitions from celebrity to this official role.That is one reason why I
wonder whether looking at the formal text of this official speech (however
fascinating) is such a useful way to explore the perezhivanie of the Trump
experience, because it's so uniquely not about the written text. I suspect
even many of Trump's supporters were not particularly interested in the
speech.

On Tuesday, January 24, 2017, Alfredo Jornet Gil <a.j.gil@iped.uio.no
<javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','a.j.gil@iped.uio.no');>> wrote:

> Richard,
> what this linguist says and you comment on Trump's talk is pretty close to
> what I was just writing to Francine in the main "trump's speech" thread
> about hearing him literally and hearing him as irony. If you stick to
> hearing in the same he seems to treat his recipients, then you may have to
> believe that each word conveys an idea and that one word suffices to give
> the idea, like "it's true". It seems to be enough. As per your question,
> yes, it's a very scary question. It also is very scary that he may say,
> "it's true" and so be it.
> Alfredo
> ________________________________________
> From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu>
> on behalf of Richard Beach <rbeach@umn.edu>
> Sent: 23 January 2017 23:09
> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> Subject: [Xmca-l]  Trump's "talking" versus "speaking"
>
>  In a New York Times op-ed <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/
> 01/21/opinion/sunday/how-to-listen-to-donald-trump-every-day
> -for-years.html>, the linguist, John McWhorter, distinguishes between
> Trump’s informal, spontaneous “talking” versus “speaking” that involves
> employing a more formal register associated with written language. He cites
> the example of Trump’s talking: “Look, having nuclear — my uncle was a
> great professor and scientist and engineer, Dr. John Trump at M.I.T.; good
> genes, very good genes, O.K., very smart, the Wharton School of Finance,
> very good, very smart — you know, if you’re a conservative Republican, if I
> were a liberal, if, like, O.K. …”
>
>
> What’s problematic here is that Trump’s off-the-cuff “talking,” as well as
> his use of tweets, can convey messages with problematic uptakes from
> others, resulting in taking action without careful thought or consultation
> with others. As McWhorter notes: “All understand that his speech is
> structurally ungraceful. It may be harder to grasp that Mr. Trump, as
> someone just talking rather than artfully communicating ideas, has no sense
> of the tacit understanding that a politician’s utterances are more signals
> than statements, vehicles meant to convey larger messages.”
>
> When one of his hotels is another country is attacked by “terrorists,”
> will Trump, as someone who perceives himself as the prime actor,
> spontaneously declare war with little or no consideration of the
> consequences of his actions?
>
>
>
> Richard Beach, Professor Emeritus of English Education, University of
> Minnesota
> rbeach@umn.edu
> Websites: Digital writing <http://digitalwriting.pbworks.com/>, Media
> literacy <http://teachingmedialiteracy.pbworks.com/>, Teaching literature
> <http://teachingliterature.pbworks.com/>, Identity-focused ELA Teaching <
> http://identities.pbworks.com/>, Common Core State Standards <
> http://englishccss.pbworks.com/>, Apps for literacy learning <
> http://usingipads.pbworks.com/>, Teaching about climate change <
> http://climatechangeela.pbworks.com/>
>
>
> > On Jan 23, 2017, at 12:52 PM, lpscholar2@gmail.com wrote:
> >
> > Andrew, Andy,
> > I also want to pursue the example of James Lawson.
> > What struck me was his relationship to both parents as formative.
> > Moving to Trump’s inauguration, what struck me was the bodily gesture he
> was expressing walking down the hallway just prior to speaking.
> > This body language that i was reading before he spoke a word.
> > I hope some of you watched the Frontline documentary on PBS EXPLORING
> both Trump’s and Clinton’s early family life.
> >
> > Trump’s father was only interested in ‘winners’ and to come second was
> to be a ‘loser’. The father sent Trump as a young man to a military academy
> that would teach his son how to be a ‘winner’ a lesson that Trump inhabits
> and is incarnating in his every gesture.
> >
> > His emotional, cognitive, and performative symmetry captured in his
> facial expression as he walked forward to give his inaugural address.
> >
> > In other words, James Lawson, Donald Trump, and Martin Packer’s book
> review i see as overlapping themes.
> > When we explore ‘expression’ and ‘intentionality’ and ‘language’ i want
> to include the family upbringing as formative.
> >
> > Now as an aside, Simmel would say both James and Donald are inhabiting
> (fictions) that INform their experiences, but that may be a leap too far.
> Simmel was following the philosopher Vasinger (spelling?) who focused on
> how we live our lives (as is) or (as though) but to take this turn would be
> for another thread.
> >
> >
> >
> > Sent from my Windows 10 phone
> >
> > From: Andrew Babson
> > Sent: January 23, 2017 9:08 AM
> > To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> > Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: James Lawson and perezhivanie
> >
> > Andy, thank you for the timely post, especially as we move forward in the
> > shadow of authoritarianism here in the USA. Lawson's example of choosing
> > non-violent protest, following Gandhi, is helpful. Consider the
> > effectiveness of millions of people last weekend peacefully taking to the
> > streets with few if any arrests (side note: we all went as a family here
> in
> > Philly, it was great). Contrast the Black Bloc member's sucker punch of
> > neo-nazi Richard Spencer: people are cheering it, but those same people
> > probably realize it's not a scalable strategy. Different tours de force,
> > different effects, the gender connotations of which are interesting.
> >
> > *P <http://goog_1035151535/>**erezhivanie
> > <http://wiki.lchc.ucsd.edu/CHAT/Perezhivanie> *is a new term to me,
> which I
> > link here to the XMCA blog for those other also unfamiliar with it. It
> > seems like a pretty clear gloss of a term I do know well, *Erlebnis,
> > *"experience"
> > (I dislike the gloss of that Dilthey-an term as "lived" experience...but
> > that's for another discussion).
> >
> > It's fascinating to learn about Lawson's vocational decision-making
> > process, and to consider the possible effects of violent and non-violent
> > dissent. But perhaps you could clarify for us Andy why you thought
> Lawson's
> > story was an example of *perezhivanie*? Where's the point of analytical
> > traction? If it means more than "experience", how can we apply that
> broader
> > meaning here? It seems like he had a Pauline metanoia/conversion
> > experience. Is that what you mean?
> >
> > Andrew
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------
> > Andrew Babson, Ph.D.
> > Lecturer
> > Graduate School of Education
> > University of Pennsylvania
> >
> > On Sun, Jan 22, 2017 at 4:40 AM, Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net> wrote:
> >
> > James Lawson is the Methodist preacher who trained the young members of
> the
> > SNCC in non-violent action and wrote their constitution. I paste below
> and
> > attach an excerpt from my book "The Origins of Collective Decision
> Making"
> > which narrates Lawson's life up until April 1960. Perezhivanie was not
> the
> > topic under discussion so it is not mentioned in the text, but xmca-ers
> > should be able to see it, an example of perezhivanie:
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > James Lawson was born in 1928, in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. His father,
> > James Snr., was the grandson of an escaped slave, and a Minister for the
> > African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in New England.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Via the Free African Society(FAS) the Methodists had recruited freed
> slaves
> > in Philadelphiain 1787, but as a result of a racist incident, some left
> to
> > found the African Methodist Episcopal Church(AMEC). Nonetheless, many
> > African Americans stayed with the United Methodist Church. The AMEC split
> > started in Philadelphia and the AMEC Zion Church was a split that came
> out
> > of New York. It was to AMEC Zion, James Lawson was born.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > However, Lawson returned to The United Methodist Church, created by a
> 1939
> > merger of several branches of the Methodist Church, which set up five
> > regional ‘jurisdictions’ of Methodists in the US, organized to maintain
> > regionally identity and a sixth, called the ‘Central Jurisdiction’ which
> > combined the Black annual conferences, thus building segregation into the
> > constitution of the Church.The Methodists went through a long and painful
> > process, carried out in accordance with the Methodist Code of Discipline,
> > which mandates the principle of Majority, to re-integrate the white and
> > Black, but it was not till after 1964 that Black conferences started to
> > merge into white conferences. At the local level, congregations continued
> > much as before. So it was within the Black section of the segregated
> United
> > Methodist Church, that James Lawson became a Methodist.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > James Snr. was a militant preacher; he packed a 38 pistol and set up
> > branches of the NAACP wherever he was assigned to preach. After serving
> at
> > St. James AMEZ Church in Massillon, Ohio, he transferred to the Lexington
> > Annual Conference of the Central Jurisdiction of the United Methodist
> > Church. James Snr. was no pacifist and according to Lawson he “refused to
> > take any guff from anyone, particularly on the point of race” and
> “insisted
> > that he was going to be treated as a man.”
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Lawson’s mother, Philane May Cover, on the other hand, was decidedly
> > nonviolent. Lawson’s challenge, which was to form his character, was to
> > reconcile his father’s militancy with his mother’s nonviolence. Lawson
> grew
> > up in Massillon. One day, at the age of 10, Lawson was asked by his
> mother
> > to run an errand:
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > A little white child in an automobile yelled ‘nigger’ out the opened
> > window. I walked over ... and, since I was in a hurry running my mother’s
> > errand, I smacked the child and went on my way. When the Lawson kids got
> > called ‘nigger’ on the streets or at school, we usually fought. I don’t
> > know where we got that from, except that we figured that it was something
> > to fight over. (Lawson, cited in King, 1999)
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On the return trip home, aware of possible repercussions, Lawson tried to
> > find the parents of the offending child, to talk to them, but the car was
> > gone. Once home, he told his mother of the incident. Lawson’s mother
> > replied, “Jimmy, what good did that do?”
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > She talked about who I was, the fact of God’s love, that we were a family
> > of love and that such an incident could not hurt me, because of who I
> was.
> > I don’t remember anyone else being around, but a stillness took over my
> > being at that moment. It was, as I realized much later on, a mystical
> > experience. In a very real way, my life stood still. I realized in that
> > stillness that I had changed forever. One of the phrases my mother used
> in
> > her conversation with me was that ‘there must be a better way’. I
> > determined, from then on, that I would find the better way. (Lawson,
> cited
> > in King, 1999, pp. 187-188)
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > He first became acquainted with Gandhi’s experiments in nonviolence as a
> > child, thanks to the African-American press which the family discussed
> > around the dinner table, and had read Gandhi’s autobiography as a
> teenager.
> > At Baldwin Wallace College, a liberal arts Methodistcollege in Berea,
> Ohio,
> > he studied Thoreau, Gandhi and Tolstoy, and the pacifist theologians
> > Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Reinhold Niebuhr. At age 19, he became a draft
> > resister, refusing service in the Korean War. Executive director of
> > Fellowship Of Reconciliation (FOR), A. J. Muste,frequently visited to
> > lecture at the College:
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > All of us in history classes were required to hear Muste. I was thrilled.
> > He made me realize that I was not alone in my experimentation, that there
> > was a world movement, and a national movement. ... He acquainted me with
> > the Fellowship Of Reconciliation, which I joined on the spot in 1947.
> That
> > meant that I got exposed to their book list.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > After hearing a lecture by A. J. Muste, he joined FOR and CORE. Muste was
> > instrumental thereafter in strengthening Lawson’s nonviolent orientation,
> > directing him towards Gandhi and later facilitating his entry into the
> > sit-in and boycott movement beginning in the South. In the late 1940s and
> > early 1950s Lawson had organized sit-ins and protests directed at
> > establishments that discriminated against blacks in Massillon, long
> before
> > the Montgomery bus-boycott.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > He was also active with the National Conference of Methodist Youth.
> > Although a member of a segregated Methodist Church, he found plenty of
> > support for his stands against racial discrimination and war from his
> white
> > colleagues and church fellows. While he was in prison serving thirteen
> > months of a two and a half year term for draft resistance in 1952, he was
> > re-elected as Vice-President of the NCMY.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Wesleyan Methodism was central to Lawson’s outlook. Just as John Wesley
> had
> > sought to cleanse individuals of iniquity, so could society be purged of
> > the social sins of slavery, segregation, poverty, and war.Generations of
> > African American Methodists from Harriet Tubman (AMEZ) and Henry M.
> Turner
> > (AME) in the nineteenth century, to Rosa Parks (AME) and James Farmer
> > (MEC), were led to social justice activism by this Methodist heritage.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Lawson used his prison time to read and think. Writing from prison in
> 1952
> > aged 23 years old and yet to enter the seminary, Lawson said he aspired
> to
> > emulate “the life of Jesus, St. Francis, George Fox, Gandhi, Buddha...
> and
> > other great religious persons.” These figures attached little importance
> to
> > “theology but (to their) experience with God.”Further, he noted
> “religious
> > failures today are in (the arena of) experience and practice, not
> > theology.” When Lawson entered prison, he was a Christian pacifist.He
> told
> > Mary King however, that his “first commitment was to work on race,” and
> > conscientious objection came second.By the time of his release, he had
> > advanced to Gandhian nonviolence. He wondered “why can’t a mass
> non-violent
> > revolution be staged throughout the South where the segregation pattern
> is
> > much like the ‘untouchables’ of India? Such a movement would have to
> start
> > with one person who had the Christian vision to make such a revolution a
> > reality in his own life.” Gandhian nonviolence became the synthesizing
> > factor for Lawson’s religious thinking: the militancy of his father’s
> > Methodism and the Christian pacifism that he drew from his mother.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Muste arranged for Lawson to visit India after his release from prison
> with
> > a letter of introduction to activists in the Gandhian movement, and he
> > remained in India from May 1953 to 1956, working at Hislop College in
> > Nagpur, reading Indian literature and working with Gandhi’s movement.
> > Lawson’s practice would remain deeply religious; his nonviolence was
> > saturated with the message of Christian love, and blended with principles
> > synthesized from a broad range of religious and secular sources, both
> > Eastern and Western. His aim was the “mass education and training of
> people
> > in the use of nonviolent direct action techniques.” Lawson insisted that
> > “you are fighting a system, not an individual, not a race, or not the
> > people of another country, but a system.”
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > He continued his study of pacifism and Gandhian nonviolence at Oberlin
> > College, Ohio. While still in India, he had read about Martin Luther King
> > and his successful leadership of the Montgomery bus boycott.King’s
> lecture
> > at Oberlin on February 6, 1957, fortified his long-held intention to work
> > in the South for transformative social change. After King’s lecture to a
> > packed audience, he and Lawson talked together at dinner.Though Lawson
> was
> > contemplating study for a Ph.D., King told him “don’t wait, but come
> south
> > now!” adding that there was no one else like Lawson.Muste arranged for
> FOR
> > to hire Lawson as southern field secretary to be stationed at Nashville
> in
> > January 1958. Upon his arrival, he found that Glenn Smiley, national
> field
> > director of FOR, had arranged for Lawson to run a full schedule of
> > workshops ‒ including one to take place early that year at the first
> annual
> > meeting of the SCLC in Columbia, South Carolina.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > At the SCLC meeting, King made an exuberant introduction of Lawson as
> FOR’s
> > new regional representative and discussed the organization’s role in
> > Montgomery, telling delegates to be sure to attend Lawson’s workshop on
> > nonviolence. King took his seat in the first pew, waiting for the
> > three-hour session to start:
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Martin did that at every SCLC meeting as long as he lived. He would ask
> me
> > to conduct an afternoon workshop, usually two or three hours, and he
> would
> > arrange for it to be ‘at-large’ so that everyone could attend, with
> nothing
> > else to compete. He put it on the schedule himself. A few minutes early,
> he
> > would show up and sit alone, as an example, in the front row.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Back in Nashville, Lawson continued with Monday evening workshops during
> > the autumn of 1959 in which he trained the students who were to be the
> core
> > of the Nashville sit-in movement. As a result of his involvement with the
> > sit-ins Lawson was expelled from Vanderbilt, but he enrolled with Boston
> > University to finish his degree in theology,while continuing to work with
> > the students. Several professors in the School of Theology resigned over
> > his expulsion.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > The techniques that the students deployed were drawn from Lawson’s
> > workshops. In 1958 and 1959, Lawson mobilized all that he knew about
> > Christian pacifism, Gandhian nonviolence, and Methodist social ministry
> and
> > blended them into an unprecedented curriculum that influenced the civil
> > rights movement in Nashville and beyond.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Blending Christianity and interreligious sources, he did not present its
> > philosophy and practice as a secular doctrine, but as the essence of
> > religion itself. Core to nonviolence was mirroring God’s love for
> humankind
> > and exhibiting it through concrete relationships of human solidarity and
> > community. “Nonviolence,” Lawson taught, is the aggressive, forgiving,
> > patient, long-suffering Christ-like and Christ-commanded love or
> good-will
> > for all humankind even in the face of tension, fear, hatred, or demonic
> > evil.” Moreover, “it is the readiness to absorb suffering with
> forgiveness
> > and courage rather than to inflict suffering on others.”
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Lawson divided his instruction into four modules: how nonviolence reacts,
> > training for nonviolence, the virtues of nonviolence, and the methods of
> > nonviolence. Practitioners prepared themselves by jettisoning anger,
> > hostility and fear thus “minimizing the effect of an attack,” valuing
> love,
> > courage, fearlessness, and forgiveness, and pursuing redemptive suffering
> > which “releases unknown elements for good.” Preparation included
> meditation
> > and prayer, study of the scriptures, practicing nonviolence through
> > challenges to segregation in bus transportation and in other public
> > facilities.The practice steps included fact-finding, negotiation,
> education
> > of the community, and various methods of nonviolent direct action
> including
> > sit-ins, boycotts, strikes, and civil disobedience. Lawson provided an
> > extensive bibliography including relevant verses from the Bible, the
> > Bhagavad Gita, and from the Chinese philosopher, Mo Ti and the Hebrew
> > prophet, Isaiah.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > The Nashville sit-ins and those led by students in other southern cities
> > convinced Ella Baker of the SCLC to call a conference in April, 1960, at
> > Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina. Out of this meeting emerged
> the
> > Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.Lawson delivered an opening
> > keynote address that helped to frame SNCC’s nonviolent trajectory.Later,
> > Lawson summarized discussions and consensus that emerged out of the
> > conference, and his synopsis received the approval of everyone there.
> > Lawson’s overall comments said that “nonviolence as it grows from
> > Judaic-Christian tradition seeks a social order of justice permeated by
> > love.”
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > It was Lawson who delivered the keynote address and framed SNCC’s
> > nonviolent orientation.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > The whole group, perhaps 120 participants, all in the room, asked me to
> > draft a statement. Eventually, three different drafts emerged. The
> > Nashville group was cohesive. The extant draft was the third, influenced
> by
> > the Nashville group, after two earlier conversations. (Interview with
> King,
> > June 2014)
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Lawson’s synopsis was approved by the Conference.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > In a private email message Mary King told me:
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > He [James Lawson] was reading from the FOR booklist from a young age,
> but I
> > don’t think that he was influenced on notions of Consensus by Quakers,
> > because the connection was too abstract. Let me underscore that he says
> it
> > was for him Methodist origins. (Private email, 15 April 2014)
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > In his interview with Mary King, Lawson confirmed that the origin of
> > Consensus in SNCC was the Nashville Central Committee, confirming what
> Mary
> > King had told me in April. As to the roots Consensus in Lawson’s own
> > experience, he emphasized that:
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > It was the Methodist youth and student movements with which I had grown
> up,
> > and this is how they made decisions. They knew the rules of parliamentary
> > procedures, but they wanted to find a common mind. (Interview with King,
> > June 2014)
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > The Methodist Church to this very day still mandates Majority decisions,
> > but this would never have entailed children voting ‒ in general
> youngsters
> > in these organizations were simply told what to do. The Black
> congregations
> > had operated separately for more than a century, so there was some room
> for
> > Lawson to develop a consensual model of collaboration in working with
> young
> > people. It is also possible the Black congregations, like other Black
> > Churches in America, drew on other traditions of decision making.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >
> > Andy Blunden
> >
> >
> > http://home.mira.net/~andy
> >
> >
> > http://www.brill.com/products/book/origins-collective-decision-making
> >
>
>