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Chomsky vs. Polya on boring lectures.

EGarrett

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E
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noam_chomsky

Chomsky travels frequently, giving lectures on politics. His lectures have been described as compelling and sincere, though largely devoid of personality or emotion. Chomsky has acknowledged this criticism, seeing it more as a virtue: "I'm a boring speaker and I like it that way...I doubt that people are attracted to whatever the persona is...People are interested in the issues, and they're interested in the issues because they are important.[9]
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http://www.c2i.ntu.edu.sg/AI+CI/Humor/tlquotes_T.html

To teach effectively a teacher must develop a feeling for his subject; he cannot make his students sense its vitality if he does not sense it himself. He cannot share his enthusiasm when he has no enthusiasm to share. How he makes his point may be as important as the point he makes; he must personally feel it to be important. -- George Polya (in Thinking the Unthinkable: The Story of Complex Numbers (with a Moral), by Israel Kleiner, 1988)
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Which do you lean towards?
 
EGarrett said:
Which do you lean towards?
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Substance trumps style. If the material is interesting, I'll listen to it being delivered by Hawking's voice synthesizer.

Nothing is as boring as a TV preacher dramatically gesturing and pleading and moving about, because what he says is usually stupid.

Now if that synthesized voice was designed to sound like a certain woman...

edited to add:I am usually entranced by Chomsky's lectures, and I am not one of his ardent supporters. It is just fascinating to listen to someone intelligent putting forth ideas.
 
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Raphael said:
Substance trumps style. If the material is interesting, I'll listen to it being delivered by Hawking's voice synthesizer.

Nothing is as boring as a TV preacher dramatically gesturing and pleading and moving about, because what he says is usually stupid.
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I disagree. Form/Function argument at its roots. Neither trumps.
 
Chomsky (whom I admire) is making excuses.

If you're going to get out there and give a talk in front of human beings, for God's sake, make it interesting to them!

There's no good reason not to engage your audience. Your "issues" are still what they are. Making your speech compelling doesn't in any way detract from that.

You're just being lazy, Noam!
 
Piggy said:
Chomsky (whom I admire) is making excuses.

If you're going to get out there and give a talk in front of human beings, for God's sake, make it interesting to them!

There's no good reason not to engage your audience. Your "issues" are still what they are. Making your speech compelling doesn't in any way detract from that.

You're just being lazy, Noam!
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Perhaps Chomsky is deliberately mild mannered during his speaches because he's dicussing topics which are often political powder kegs and he wants to be seen as a serious academic, rather than a demagogue?
 
Piggy said:
Chomsky (whom I admire) is making excuses.

If you're going to get out there and give a talk in front of human beings, for God's sake, make it interesting to them!

There's no good reason not to engage your audience. Your "issues" are still what they are. Making your speech compelling doesn't in any way detract from that.

You're just being lazy, Noam!
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Agreed, except that I find Chomsky to be a USA hating Commie.

George Will or his mentor from his early career William F. Buckley are extremely intelligent and equally eloquent, and more fun to listen to as well. My politics are closer to George's than either of the other extremes. I find it curious that so many think George to be ultra-conservative (it's the bow tie), when in fact many, many of his ideas are pure libertarian (little "l"). He is a strong believer that government should deliver only a bare minimum of services, and he's an outspoken champion of the free market. He's just got a really dry wit. Chomsky appears to have none at all.

AS
 
ImaginalDisc said:
Perhaps Chomsky is deliberately mild mannered during his speaches because he's dicussing topics which are often political powder kegs and he wants to be seen as a serious academic, rather than a demagogue?
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He is a serious academic. He's also an America hating Commie. :D

AS

ETA: Oh, and I vote that he doesn't have much of a personality. He's dull.
 
ImaginalDisc said:
Perhaps Chomsky is deliberately mild mannered during his speaches because he's dicussing topics which are often political powder kegs and he wants to be seen as a serious academic, rather than a demagogue?
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We are not forced into the choice of being either boring on the one hand or demagogues on the other.
 
Btw, AS, if you're serious about the "America-hating Commie" bit, Chomsky is not a communist, nor does he hate America. He's also not a "self-hating Jew", which he's also been accused of.
 
Piggy said:
We are not forced into the choice of being either boring on the one hand or demagogues on the other.
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Sorry for derailing your topic with politics.

Yes, of course you are right. Serious topics and discussions don't have to be dull. They are probably more effectively presented when some zip and zing are put into the presentation. Humans like being entertained as well as being stimulated. They're not mutually exclusive.

AS
 
Piggy said:
We are not forced into the choice of being either boring on the one hand or demagogues on the other.
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I think you may be neglecting the tendency of people in the Media to sieze a sound bite and play it out. It only take a single passionate, and borderline inaccurate statement over the course of a four hour lecture to make Chomsky seem like a fool.
 
Piggy said:
Btw, AS, if you're serious about the "America-hating Commie" bit, Chomsky is not a communist, nor does he hate America. He's also not a "self-hating Jew", which he's also been accused of.
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I'm only half-serious about the America hating part. I don't care to look it up, but my foggy recollection is that Chomsky was one of those who blamed American foreign policy for 9/11 and the previous WTC attack in 1993, and his very liberal ideas make him sound uncomfortably like a Commie to me. I know he's not really a communist (but he is a member of the IWWW). Of course, I'm a red stater and a nominal Republican by default, because I don't think I'll ever be able to bring myself to label myself a Democrat, so what the hell do I know?

AS
 
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ImaginalDisc said:
I think you may be neglecting the tendency of people in the Media to sieze a sound bite and play it out. It only take a single passionate, and borderline inaccurate statement over the course of a four hour lecture to make Chomsky seem like a fool.
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That's the risk we take. Cowardice is no excuse.
 
W. S. Buckley's an engaging writer and speaker indeed, but, still, it's easy to be a champion of the unrestricted free market when, like him, you're the son of a millionaire and married the daughter of an even richer millionaire.
 
ImaginalDisc said:
I don't think there's much cause for calling Chomsky a coward.
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I'm not saying he's a coward, but I never undestood those who think he shows any bravery.

He knows very well, of course, that for all his talk about the "opression", "silencing of criticism", "totalitarianism" and so on in the USA and the west, there is absolutely no danger of him being arrested, exiled, killed, or even slightly inconvenienced for stating his views, no matter how distatsteful. In addition, being a tenured professor, he doesn't even take the risk of losing his job due to the dislike of his co-workers.

So his "brave" anti-USA, pro-whomever-is-the-USA-enemy stand, is just a show, a circus act of sorts. It's a pretend fight, where Chomsky pretends to be "fighting" the powers of evil and opression (as he describes them), knowing full well those powers will do absolutely nothing in retaliation. He is no more "brave" than the actor playing an action hero is "brave" for pretending to fight a dozen people at once.
 
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