Gerry Spence: Use

“The gift of self cannot be given to us. It is an incomparable gift that has already been given.”

Gerry Spence

Source: Give Me Liberty! (1998), Ch. 9 : Empowering the Self, p. 118
Context: The gift of self cannot be given to us. It is an incomparable gift that has already been given. We have possessed it from the beginning.

“Use simple words, words that create pictures and action and that generate feeling.”

Gerry Spence

Source: How to Argue and Win Every Time (1995), Ch. 7 : The Power of Words, p. 104
Context: Words that do not create images should be discarded. Words that have no intrinsic emotional or visual content ought to be avoided. Words that are directed to the sterile intellectual head-place should be abandoned. Use simple words, words that create pictures and action and that generate feeling.

Feeling

“I dream of a time when the people will retake their airways and use them to achieve a voice to rediscover democracy, and to see the divine potential of man.”

Gerry Spence

Source: Give Me Liberty! (1998), Ch. 20 : The Media : The Perpetual Voice of the Master, the Abiding Ear of the Slave, p. 243. Dream 7 : A Propaganda for People, Not Things

People , Dreams , Democracy , Time

“Nearly every day on the television set the hero cop breaks into the bad guy’s house and beats a confession out of him and we cheer on the cop. Propaganda smears our clear vision. It causes us to accept the diminishment of our constitutional protections as something to be lauded — after all, the cop was protecting us.”

Gerry Spence

Source: Give Me Liberty! (1998), Ch. 20 : The Media : The Perpetual Voice of the Master, the Abiding Ear of the Slave, p. 236

Guy , Housing

“We are defined by how we use our power.”

Gerry Spence

"The Rat Hole" (25 December 2003) http://www.gerryspence.com/the-rat-hole/