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Speaking Fearlessly!
Posted by Joseph Riggio on Wednesday, December 05, 2007Living Fearlessly ... ATTITUDE, ARTICULATION, ACTION ... (and a announcing a new program in the Summer of 2008, “Intentional Performance: The Hero’s Journey & The Graves Model, Warp and Weft of the Tapestry of INTENT")
Evening all,
After yesterday's minor technology diversion I'm coming back at ya' with a more "technical" conversation ... in fact a technical conversation about conversation ... or at least communication.
Technocrats of Speech Communication are almost all familiar with the two most common forms of classical speech training, rhetoric and dialectic, and with the third grammar added to the first two this forms the basis of classical liberal arts education. Simply, the ancients believed that the basis of an educated mind was the ability to communicate effectively. This mostly meant persuading others ... ala rhetoric.
The favored form of the Sophists, traveling philosopher scholars who taugh the art of discourse, rhetoric was and is the favored form of lawyerly communication, then and now. The essence of rhetoric revolves around moving others to action via persuasion, i.e.: by manipulating communication to present ideas in the form most likely to produce the outcome desired by the presenter. While this is a simplistic description of what rhetoric is, it is nonetheless accurate. FWIW Socrates had little time for rhetoric, considering it inferior to dialectic.
The Socratic Method is based in dialectic. Socrates used the back and forth questioning form of dialectic to lead his disciples to ascertaining "truth" ... about themselves, others, the world around them, or simply as a process to hone their thinking skills in general. In many ways dialectic was the most basic and essential form of logic, rational thinking and communication ... most essentially expressed as point/counterpoint or thesis/antithesis. The modern continental philosopher Hegel picked up on, wrote and taught extensively on the idea of dialectic as the fundamental structure evolution, both personal and social.
Both of these forms, rhetoric and dialectic, are based in moving another person(s) based on choosing what you present and how you present it to get your outcome ... a manipulation of your communication to produce your intended results (with/through others). Yet the forgotten form of speech training that the Greeks also coveted was parrhesia, speaking fearlessly
The post-modern French philosopher Michel Foucault picked up on this idea of parrhesia or "fearless speech" and lectured on it at Berkeley (University of California, Berkeley) in the fall of 1983. From the transcripts from this series of lectures, delivered in English, the book, "Fearless Speech" was written (with editor, Joseph Pearson). This was Foucault's last book before his death in 1984.
This form of communication ... parrhesia ... fearless speech ... literally refers to speaking your mind in an unfettered manner ... Fearlessly!:
To truly speak fearlessly means accepting the consequences of speaking one's mind in a completely truthful, direct (unambiguous), unrestricted and critical manner. The relationship of the speaker to the listener(s) does not limit the practice of parrhesia ... including even the risk of death if that is the consequence of speaking one's truth. In some way it could even be said that the recognition and acceptance of the risk associated with speaking fearlessly is the essential quality of parrhesia. However, this practice, speaking one's truth in a direct, unrestricted and critical manner, is not common practice.
Many, maybe even most, of my contemporaries, practice the art of teaching rhetoric and dialectic ... persuasion and dialogue. Few if any are practicing the art of teaching parrhesia ... and fewer still are practicing it themselves. In fact in honor of this posting's topic I'll step out further on the plank and state explicitly that most of my contemporaries utilize the art of flattery as their common practice ... think "seduction" (Aristotle hated this one, flattery ... and with good reason ... but more about this later on, eh?).
My apprenticeship with Roye was held in the crucible of fearless speech and I learned to keep this practice ... the practice of parrhesia .. at the core of my personal behavior. In that context, my apprenticing with Roye, nothing less would be or was accepted. Looking back I can say that in some very practical ways this hasn't always served me, yet in terms of living my life with integrity and without compromise it always has ...
So today it would be fair of me to say that I've built my life around the practice of parrhesia ... speaking fearlessly ... it is the basis of how I work and what I teach. Those who hire me as a consultant or come to study with me find themselves facing a brutally honest, unvarnished reflection ... in act and word. Most flinch, many leave ... and some stay. Those that do are those who are ready ... ready to confront themselves unadorned. The reward ... the ability to stand naked in the world and take on their lives without hesitation or distortion. This is a rare, valuable, sensuous and stunning quality. I call it adopting the "aesthetic stance", choosing aesthetically. Think about how genuinely, authentically attractive someone who lives their lives this way ... with complete integrity and without compromise ... truly is ...
In any case I plan on extending the conversation of what this stance is all about and what it takes to adopt this position ... speaking fearlessly ... the aesthetic stance, over the next few months in some of my upcoming blog posts ... so if your ready come on aboard ... but foretold is forewarned as they say ... this particular journey is not for the feint of heart or the timid, it is a journey requiring courage ... the courage to risk your life.
Heroically yours,
Joseph Riggio, Social Ontologist ... Applied Mythologist,
Princeton, NJ
SPECIAL NOTICE: 2008 Intentional Performance:
I'm planning a very special five-day retreat this summer in Denmark. I'm tentatively calling it, Intentional Performance: The Hero's Journey & The Graves Model, Warp and Weft of the Tapestry of INTENT. We'll be exploring the origins and impact of the personal and social mythologies we are subject to, create and live inside of on our own and with others ... an experience of living parrhesia!
If all goes well I'll be running this program at the Langebaek Retreat Center in Langebaek, Denmark ... the "Blue Butterfly Retreat Center" ... as it's also known. This is the same venue I used for the MythoSelf Facilitator's Intensive Training Program last summer. It is a magical venue just next to the island of Mon.
The group will be limited to no more than thirty, and very likely as few as twenty - I'll decide on the final count once I've finished making the plans for this personal and professional development retreat (last year we were over-booked for the MythoSelf Facilitator's Intensive Training with 43 people joining me there!).
I recommend if you're at all interested please drop me a note with the subject line: 2008 Intentional Performance Retreat
and I'll put you on my insider's pre-release mailing list so you'll get the notices of what I'm doing as I make these plans going forward. This particular program may very well sell-out before I even announce it publicly.[PLEASE NOTE: If this program does sell-out to my insider's list I will not be announcing it publicly, so if you're at all interested and don't want to be disappointed drop me a note now: jsriggio-AT-josephriggio.com ].
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Put me down on the list please, I’d love to go back to the land of Beowulf. I attended the intensive this year and can attest to the quality of the Retreat centre, with beautiful young Danish women serving you what more could you ask for? (maybe a bit more meat and chocolate and I’d be in paradise)…
I get the courageous part, it’s essential to tell clients the truth even when they don’t want to hear it and it surprises me that other coaches and therapists don’t. It’s also interesting that in marketing those that try to build up what either they are not or what their product has not ultimately fail. Yet taking the rare position of “cutting through the crap” gets results. Sometimes it’s good to be a monster 
Michael,
Thanks for the note ...
You are on the list. If everyone who’s already shown an interest shows up we’ll sell out before I announce anything publicly for sure ... and it should be quite a crowd!!!
Of course no matter what else we’ll be at “The Blue Butterfly” and as you’ve said already, “… what more could you ask for?”
I’ve been working this morning on defining the program a bit more and I’m even trying to line up some interesting folks to be a part of the program as well. Those who make it will be in for some surprises methinks ...
Best ... Joseph
Hello Joseph,
Allen here. It’s interesting that you’ve brought this up at this time; the philosophy of parrhesia. In the years that I’ve learned from NLP or Tony Robbins and/or any other persuasion and influence skill sets, I’ve always had this uneasy feeling about what I was doing. And truly had this sense of “selling out” at times. And yet I do believe that I can speak in a persuasive manner, carefully choosing the right words to use and still “speak fearlessly”. When I “speak from the heart” is when I find myself the most persuasive. I also believe that the adumbration that people pick up on is one of sincerity and being forthright. It is in this way that what I say may sting, but rings truthful and therefore is more apt to persuade. I believe this is the power that comes with being enthusiastic about what one is speaking about. And as I begin to think more about what I have done in the past; when I’ve been selling something as a career that I think may or may not be useful, it is in those times that I think I have been my most “rhetorical”. When I believe in wholeheartedly what I’m doing is when I have spoken from the heart and have had the most success.
I’m wondering if it is the case that when someone, or I’ll speak for myself, when I truly believe in the worthiness of my cause, that I am automatically organized in a teleological way that creates the most useful somatic organization for me to be at my best.
I wonder this because I have found that when I do truly believe in my cause, it seems nearly effortless to learn more about it, to speak eloquently about it and to achieve outcomes based upon it.
Am I making any sense? Or am I using a bunch of words that sound good, but I have no idea what I’m talking about? Because speaking of speaking fearlessly, I look up the meanings of the words and do my best to use them in the correct fashion, but sometimes I wonder… maybe I’m just an idiot that just happens to be fairly good at rhetoric.
But this is exactly what I’m doing here in the mythosphere… working at stripping away the layers of b.s. and be authentic.
Respectfully,
Allen
it would be awesome to communicate in the way you describe - or rather how the Greeks describe. it seems that speaking fearlessly with those you care about and love the most would be the most challenging, even heartbreaking, - but at the same time the most critical. thanks for your blog posts, Joseph.
Best,
Allison
Allison
Do you care enough to do what’s right even though it hurts you? While it may hurt in the short term, it’s healthier in the long term. I’ve found Joseph’s idea of teleology and his Scope of Decision™ model extraordinarily valuable in this regard.
Michael,
Yes.
