Oration Defined by Cicero

Essay by motubufoCollege, UndergraduateA-, March 2008

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The social tendencies of humans and primates in general stay ingrained into our DNA. We cannot escape certain aspects of our social natures such as feelings of compassion or hatred for others and innate emotional reactions to stimuli. Remnants of the tribal mindset in human psyche allows proverbial "queen bees" to harvest power. No matter how hard we try, our hereditary wiring rejects any attempts at ignoring the draw of a charismatic person, no matter how morally right or wrong their ideas. Charm and wit reel followers in and spellbinds them into submission. A master orator's abilities sometimes can supersede fact and reason, and when done with true intentions, can bring an entire nation to change its ways. In The Good Life by Cicero, the power of oration becomes apparent. He addresses how the power of speech, when performed as an art has a profound effect on the masses.

The origins of language stretch back 100,000 years, during the time when humans were diverging from lesser primates.

A theory developed by archaeologist Dr. Steve Klein at Stanford University proposes that the great leap into modern human behavior that commenced 50,000 years ago was triggered by a genetic mutation some 50,000 years prior. Recently, Oxford University scientists have isolated a gene aiding in the development of language that is unique to humans. (Wade) Speech, an exclusively human construct, paved the way for Homo Sapien dominance in the world. Language offers a means to propagate knowledge, ideas, and even more profound to the human, the conveyance of emotions. Emotions signify the presence of consciousness and thus define the human being. Flesh aside, the importance of this gene rests at the upper rung of human advancement. Like the five senses, every race of human is capable of speech. Mutations in the genome such...