I gave this lecture on January 6, 2024.
Attack!
INTRODUCTION The Spokesman’s Club Manual introduces its instructions for the #8 Attack! Speech with the well-known Isaiah 58:1: “Cry aloud, spare not; lift up your voice like a trumpet.” It then says, “This speech will help you develop your power potential!” This instruction is well and good. There is a time and place for a raised voice and using vocal power. Sometimes, something is so heinous, so despicable, that it warrants shouting in righteous indignation. But there is a fine line between real, necessary anger and running amok!
SPS The #8 Attack! Speech calls for scrutiny because, despite being a necessary part of our arsenal, public speakers in this era of TED Talks and well-modulated talking heads largely misunderstand it. As Solomon writes, there is “a time to keep silence, and a time to speak” (Ecclesiastes 3:7)—and there is a time to speak powerfully.
For many years, I have held a contrary opinion on the #8 Attack! Speech. I am not opposed to the idea of the speech in principle—learning how to attack a sinful idea or practice with power is beneficial—but I am opposed to how both the Manual and some past directors have taught it.
Part of it is my personality; I am not a shouter and pounder behind the lectern. I prefer a more reasonable approach, dismantling ideas and practices with proof and logic. I will admit I personally dislike this speech.
Another part is societal change; we no longer respect people who vent their rage by screaming and beating a poor lectern to matchsticks. It raises the ghosts of Hitler, Mussolini, and other dictators who led their nations by anger and heightened, destructive rhetoric. It may have been in vogue more than eighty years ago, but it does not reach people today. It puts them off. They think it makes a person look like a lunatic.
In its instruction, the Manual reads: “. . . bombard, storm, assault, charge, assail, besiege, beset, and beleaguer one specific subject about which you are ‘boiling mad’ until you have crushed it.”
A little later: “Start strong and build to a stinging climax. Go on the warpath! Denounce! Protest! Deprecate! Don’t be afraid to really ‘let loose!’ Shout and pound!”
Besides being a list of “attack” words from a thesaurus—which, by itself, raises my hackles—this instruction sounds more like rage than righteous anger. It makes me imagine a barely sane drill sergeant abusing the grunts as they learn to march in formation. I have always wondered if these instructions were written by former army sergeants who enjoyed giving it to GIs in boot camp during WWII or the Korean War.
Then, after stirring the reader up with such provocative, berserker language, the Manual has the gall to say, “But, don’t lose control. You are to exhibit controlled power. This is an exercise in self-control.” This quotation comes two-thirds down the page, far too late. The idea of a total war assault has already been embedded, overshadowing and minimizing any idea of “controlled power.”
Matthew 21:12-16; John 2:13-17 (see Matthew 23) Jesus is our Example of using controlled power. He was indignant, powerful, zealous, authoritative, and intractable about the Temple’s sanctity, but the accounts indicate nothing excessive, crazed, or riotous in His censure of the Jews’ practice. He shouted in anger, but He shouted allusions to Scripture (Isaiah 56:7; Jeremiah 7:11). He stood on solid ground: God’s Word.
Also, in Matthew’s account, His controlled zeal attracted the blind, the lame, and children to Him, not drove them away. They praised Him for His righteous stand against the thieving money changers. It was a principled use of power that denounced evil and hurled it away without rage, madness, or violence. His powerful but principled stand attracted like-minded people to Him, even the weak and defenseless.
So far, we have covered only the care we must take with our voice and demeanor. However, the most important element in the Attack! Speech is the words we say. This speech must be a solid argument—with proof and support—that the subject is evil and must be eradicated. It should be a thorough dismantling of the idea or practice. Convince the listener of its wickedness. Answer why it should be eradicated.
But, as the Manual says, do not attack personalities and people. We have open season on anonymous groups or practitioners of evil but avoid known, named actors. The object of our controlled, passionate denunciation should be an idea or practice, not specific people.
Also, avoid blaming political parties or offices. Everyone knows that politics is full of corruption, “from the sole of the foot even to the head” (see Isaiah 1:6). As David writes in Psalm 14:1, “They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none who does good.” We should avoid taking political sides; just stand firm on the side of goodness.
CONCLUSION The Attack! Speech is a thorough, controlled, zealous denunciation of evil. Do not overuse vocal power and anger but employ it strategically to enhance the effectiveness of your argument.
“What makes Superman a hero is not that he has power, but that he has the wisdom and the maturity to use the power wisely.”
—Christopher Reeve