Touro Communication Club Notes #60

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This Week!

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

2 pm – Room 223 0- Midtown

“Gender Communication II”

This topic – however controversial – needs further exploration from our initial discussion a while ago. Many of our communication difficulties occur during the perennial “Battle of the Sexes.” A recent controversial book, “The Female Brain,” written by Dr. Louann Brizendine, a San Francisco neurosurgeon, argues that women have a brain with an 8-lane highway while males have a single wandering country road. We’ll try to identify some of these difficulties and discover what we can do to communicate more effectively with the opposite sex.

Communicator Comments:

The communication behavior of impeached Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich this week contrasts with the communication behavior of another alleged Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff. Where Blagojevich ignored his lawyer’s advice and created a media blitz appearing on all the television networks in the last week defending his position, Madoff has been silent, no doubt for legal reasons.

Although we have first hand witnessed Blagojevich’s way with words, we have only newspaper reports of Madoff’s rhetorical gifts. The ex-Governor speaks extremely fast – a virtual motor mouth. His patient wait through a question is followed by a tsunami of verbiage, often with disconnected thought leaps. The speed at which he talks is tiring to this listener. Ideas blur during his word blizzard. He peppers his defense with claims that his actions were on behalf of the people of Illinois. Another garnish of his word salad was his tip-of-the-tongue one-liner quotes from Gandhi, MLK, Jr., the Bible and other juicy nuggets from “The Pocket Book of Great Quotations.” Blagojevich’s oration at his impeachment trial lasted 47 minutes.

Mr. Madoff’s rhetorical skills can only report. To the people he duped out of some $80 billion, Madoff was personable, gracious, confident, friendly, absolutely charming. No one could have guessed that he was doing something illegal.

Two styles of communication: one loud and aggressive; one quiet and misleadingly courteous. It is easy to identify the rhetorical style of the Braggart Warrior. It is not so easy to perceive the rhetorical cunning of the fox.

Ethos – Aristotle’s credibility – is an ephemeral experience. Often we are not paying attention as the pickpocket deceptively takes our wallet. But the aggressive bully is easy to spot. The non-verbal messages that we send out unconsciously color the words speak. President Obama’s smile lights up a room. We recognize James Earl Jones’ famous “Voice of God” as Darth Vader.” The pixie flirty energy of actress/singer Kristin Chenowith is riveting. Hitler’s rhetorical skills were legendary in their effectiveness.

With actors it is safe to be fooled by their “ethos.” No one will get hurt. But when we experience directly charismatic ethos in daily life – and certainly in politics – we must sharpen our crap detectors to identify the behavior as we become mesmerized by the manner.

Communication skills, like a carpenter’s tools, can be used in a variety of ways. The manner in which these skills are used is the very fabric of our relationships. Honing our observation and listening is a continual task.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009 –

The Club Writes a Letter to President Obama

We will spend the session translating our ideas into a coherent document which we will send to the new President. All suggestions are welcome. In a very small way we are taking the abstractions of our opinions and converting them into an action proposal. We will experiment with walking our talk.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009 –

Theatre Workshop III – Improvisation Technique

We continue to explore the basics of acting – breathing, sense memory, emotional recall as foundations for intensifying our notions of characterization. No doubt, this will be another frustrating hors d’oeuvre in the smorgasbord of valuable life skills of actor training.

What happened on January 28, 2009 Club Discussion: “What’s Happening to Communication?”

James Millner opened the discussion by handing out a list of communication devices dating from the Egyptians. Lorinda Moore, Tarell Allen, Hal Wicke, Carlisle Yearwood and Charles Mason participated.

Since so many thoughts were exchanged, a laundry list might be the most efficient way of remembering them. Communication is

• Becoming one-sided
• Everything is automated.
• Everything is faster because of technology
• Becoming dangerous – more opportunity for scams and misunderstandings.
• Is not as intelligent.
• Used to cozy and friendly.
• We’re spending more time with technology and not relating as people.
• We’ve become helpless without technology.
• “Back in the day,” we learned survival skills; we learned everything from scratch. Now we are too dependent on technology.
• The impact of this new communication behavior is that we are more distracted, often losing focus.
• People are not aware. Numb. Distracted. “Deer in the headlights” phenomenon.
• Anecdote - student saying he wants to “live in a bubble.”
• Anecdote – student runs into a teacher and asks to suggest an easy 3-credit course.
• Brief discussion among the four instructors –

o Teaching standard English is a constant battle.

o School is now the counterculture.

o Keeping standards.

• What are the problems?
• Advertising forces technology on us.
• Competition among colleges for students
• It used to be “different strokes for different folks,” now it’s one stroke for every folk.”
• “Youth is wasted on the young,”
• There is a communication crisis – this is a wake-up call.

“Communication needs a defibrillator,” said Lorinda.

IDEA: Carlisle Yearwood suggested we develop a 3x4 index card with basic Touro information on it. We’ll talk more about this in the future.

As always, these sessions are open for everyone to attend. Bring a friend and join the excitement. See you next time.

Hal Wicke