跟著杜林普學演說?

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圖片來源:路透社

奧巴馬是名出色的演說家,他應該造夢也沒想過自己討厭的杜林普,演講同樣出色。曾狂言「老爸只給了我一百萬小資金打江山」的杜林普有出言不遜的惡習,每每刷新眾人對「政客」的新想像,批評其「無腦」的言論多如過江之鯽。然而這種對人類智慧構成衝擊的語言,卻蘊含不為人知的「藝術」,分分鐘感召著我們加入他的隊伍。

在 Youtube 上專門解構人文知識的 Nerdwriter 認為,杜林普與其他候選人的語言運用有著明顯分別。由於言語有可能被斷章取義,一般總統候選人都高度警惕對自己的演辭。但杜林普作為一名經營半生的生意人,則擁有著一種「銷售情感的推銷員專屬本領」(a huskster’s knack for selling a feeling),絲毫沒有公眾人物應有的忌諱。

以他曾在 Jimmy Kimmel 的節目中的發言為例,主持人問及「宗教歧視是否一種不正確及很『不美國人』的做法」,杜林普一如既往神采飛揚地含糊其詞:

“But, Jimmy, the problem — I mean, look, I’m for it. But look, we have people coming into our country that are looking to do tremendous harm. You look at the two — look at Paris. Look at what happened in Paris. I mean, these people, they did not come from Sweden, okay? Look at what happened in Paris. Look at what happened last week in California, with, you know, 14 people dead. Other people going to die, they’re so badly injured. We have a real problem. There is tremendous hatred out there. And what I wanna do is find out what it — you know, you can’t solve a problem until you find out what’s the root cause. And I wanna find out, what is the problem, what’s going on. And, it’s temporary. I’ve had so many people call me and say thank you. Now, if you remember, when I did that a week ago it was like bedlam. All of a sudden — and you watch last night, and you see people talking. They said, “Well, Trump has a point. We have to get down to the problem.” The people that are friends of mine that called to say, “Donald, you have done us a tremendous service.” Because we do have a problem, and we have to find out what is the –“

值得注意的是其簡單得可怕的用字。波士頓環球報曾進行一項「聽懂候選人演說的所需學歷」調查,杜林普的分數為最低的 4.1 分,相比桑德斯則取得 10.1 分。簡言之,只要學歷達到外國學制四年級(約 9 歲)便能聽懂杜林普說甚麼,要明白桑德斯的演說內容則需要十年級的學歷(約 15 歲)。

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在短短只有 220 字的回應中,其近八成的字詞是單音字,好像組成一連串有韻律的攻擊一樣;整段發言只有四個三音節字,其中三個都是「tremendous」,用以強調移民對美國所造成的損害、美國人民對他們的厭惡等;又常用「We have a problem」、「We have to get down to the problem」此類沒有實質內容卻顯淺易懂的字句,反覆提及「Look at what happened in Paris」,在語感上好像大家已同意其說法一樣。其又以強而有力但過份泛濫的字眼作結,如「root cause」、「dead」、「problem」等。杜林普善於利用煽動情感的字眼,以之塑造強硬姿態,容易吸引政治立場較極端的民眾。觀其選字淺白的喜好,杜林普支持者的教育水平普遍較低的言論,似乎又紮實了一分。

最好的銷售員可以推銷一部他毫不了解的電視機(The best salesman could sell you a TV without knowing anything about it),這就是杜林普的才能,觀乎他的營商藝術品,大抵都知道他是否實幹之人。不過,香港某些所謂高官或許是例外,既沒有實力,也沒有「妖言惑眾」的本事。大學管治架構捱轟,某局長只懂重重複複地囁嚅其「行之有效」,許是應向杜爺取取經,學習這種帶有力道的虛言,也許同樣可以騙取一些支持,總比沒有好。