Pen, Sword, Words, Deeds

Do actions still speak louder than words? These days, with all the recording and playback technology available to us, words have a power and immortality long denied them. Before radio, what stuck in people’s memory was achievement – not what you promised to do, but what you did. Now, the speeches of politicians and leaders are recorded and quoted and pass into cultural vocabulary: “I have a dream,” “Never before in the field of human conflict…” and so on. So is it still true that actions speak louder and more memorably?

Why do we remember Churchill, Luther King, Kennedy, and Mandela’s words so well? Is it just a fine turn of phrase by the speechwriter, or the well-trained delivery? Is it the capture of a moment and a mood? Or is to do with timing and what happened next?

The truly memorable speeches came at turning points in history, and sometimes were – or at least appeared to be – the pivot on which events turned. Luther King’s ‘I Have A Dream’ expressed the civil rights movement of the time with an eloquence that still rings clearly (although that may be because it’s still, sadly, relevant).

Churchill’s wartime speeches stiffened British resolve to keep fighting and keep believing in victory. If Britain had fallen before America joined the war, the outcome may have been vastly different.

So the great speeches incite action, and express popular sentiment with a view to affecting policy – in other words, inciting action. We remember the speeches that worked – that had an effect. In other words, the ones that could, arguably, actually be reclassified as deeds.

I guess it is still true that actions trump words.