Skip to main content

Fav Clips Nr 3



Platz drei geht an das Presidential Debate zwischen JFK und Nixon in 1960. Ein echter Meilenstein in der Geschichte von US-Wahlen und heute noch eine rhetorische Lehrstunde. US-Wahlen sind in meinen Augen allgemein nicht besonders demokratisch. Das Zwei-Parteien-System in den USA halte ich für keine besonders fortschrittliche, geschweige denn ausgesprochen demokratische Errungenschaft. Von der übermächtigen und wenn überhaupt, dann nur schwer beherrschbaren Bürokratie hinter der Fassade der Demokratischen Institutionen mal ganz abgesehen. Die Presidentenwahlen sind dennoch grandios und unterhaltsam. In Deutschland scheint es seit Hitler ein weitestgehendes Charismaverbot für das Kanzleramt zu geben. Das ist bei US-Präsidentschafstskandidaten anders. Besonders sehenswert sind auch die Nominational Speeches und weitere Presidential Debates. Clinton und Obama haben brilliante Auftritte abgeliefert, regelrechte Sternstunden der Rhetorik (Stichwort 'horses and bayonettes' ^^).




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Friday Retrospective

As a habit  I take my time and sit down every Friday and reflect on the past week. For this task I have a journal where I take some notes. I am not a hundred percent consequential to be honest even though the effects it had on my life are severe. As a standard scheme I ask myself five questions. 1. What was the most important change? For me it was my inoculation, which I had today. It wasn't the event itself, but more the perspective it triggered. The hope to see and meet friends and family, clients and colleagues again some day soon overwhelmed me. I am absolutely convinced that I belong to the lucky ones who benefited tremendously from the pandemic with all its ups and downs, so I don't want to sound self pitying. But like everyone I have been hurting. Hurting to see my kids not being able to visit their Granny, hurting not being able to meet with loved ones far away once in a while. Compared to that the restrictions at work felt miniscule. And now for the first time in 18 mo...

Plans and Principles

Why is it that plans can, sometimes even need to change over time? At the same time: Should guiding principles be designed to live long term and to be resistant to short term change? To both questions my answer is a firm yes. Here's why: The principle of the benefit of long lasting habits is one that fascinated me early on. The imagination that any person can improve to levels beyond their own imagination by merely sticking to a habit over a long period still strikes me. One of my oldest habits is sports. I started swimming as a member of a club -and later also as one of a competitive team- as a young teenager and have stuck to some kind of sports habit ever since. When I started first I went to training sessions twice a week. At my peak I did six to eight training sessions a week and most of my school holidays were spent either on training camps or competitions. So my first serious habit was established during those early years. After school I was not always able to swim due to re...

Learn To Unlearn

Be Brilliant Subject matter expertise has its perks. Being an expert on any field requires deep learning as well as deliberate practice over years and years. The more professional experience you gain the more you'll swap a minimum principle mindset ('What do I need to do to achieve XY?') for a maximum principle ('How much can I possibly achieve with my available resources?'). When I started as a consultant I had a very basic and fragmented knowledge in most of the technical aspects in my subject matter. At the time I was already a certified and experienced supply chain management expert with some merits. However, as the branch I had worked in (military and defence) neither used the latest technology nor had a business model that promoted short development or change cycles in leadership or management, I did not feel 100% competitive. Therefore I faced some serious challenges when I started my career in the private sector.  At the time when I joined a consulting compa...