14.3. Discussion Points.

Have any of you ever been to Speaker’s corner? What type of thing happens there? What do people talk about? Do you have anything similar in your country?  Speaker’s Corner is the unofficial geographical centre of free speech.  It is situated in the northeastern corner of Hyde Park, near Marble Arch at the end of Oxford Street. (Marble Arch underground.) On a Saturday or Sunday morning people gather to listen or talk about any subject under the sun. You can listen to Marxists, Muslims, Anarchists, Libertarians, Cranks, Feminists, Intellectuals, and sometimes even, famous politicians and speakers. Karl Marx, Winston Churchill, and many other characters have spoken there. Anybody can talk about anything. The audience is likely to be as diverse a crowd as the speakers.

If nobody will listen to you talking nonsense in the student union bar, then this is the place for you. If you want to shout on the top of your voice that the Queen of England is a good-for-nothing, unemployed, rich fascist living off the taxes of the hard-working proletariat, this is the place for you. No one will stop you. No one will arrest you. No one is allowed to. In fact, many people will cheer you. This is still a free country! But your listeners have the right to free speech too! Don’t think you can speak so badly about our dear old Queen without getting ‘heckled’. Some of those hecklers have had years of practice, and are far better at getting the attention of the listeners than the speakers. So be careful. (See 14.9. for some classic heckler lines)

Ironically this was the part of London where people were executed, and it is said that people had a right to speak before being hanged. There are several other similar places in the world. Japan, Canada’s Wascana Park, and Singapore all have Speaker’s Corners too, usually based on the Hyde Park model. The Internet has become an equally valid forum for speakers too, if a somewhat more anonymous one.

Have you ever had to give a speech in public? How did you feel? Are there any famous people in your country who are good orators? Who are the most famous orators in history? What are the most famous speeches in history?

If you’ve had to make a speech in public, you’ve probably felt nervous, on edge, unsure of yourself, or a little self-conscious. As for the experts, well Neville Chamberlain, Charles de Gaulle, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, John F Kennedy, have all made famous speeches. Fidel Castro is famous for never shutting up. Neil Armstrong made a short speech for an astronaut, but a giant one in the history of oration. Mohammad Ali made some classic ones too. Good orators don’t always have noble sentiments to match. Adolf Hitler was famous for his oratory powers, which inspired the masses to rise up and follow his will. Zak Washington too.