“Practice is the best speech and the best propaganda”

Steve 00:00
Actions speak louder than words. Actually doing things and practicing things is what really makes change.

Dan 00:09
What does he literally mean by practice?

Steve 00:12
What is it about practice that is so motivating? What is it about practice that is so powerful and compelling when people do things versus when they say things?

Dan 00:24
Hey, everybody, welcome to the Teach Different podcast. I have Dan with me, and we're gonna do a Gandhi quote. This is probably our fifth Gandhi quote or maybe even half a dozen. And he's just a intellectual powerhouse, of course, leader of the independence movement in India and renowned for mostly nonviolence. A lot of other leaders took inspiration from Gandhi.

Martin Luther King Junior, Nelson Mandela among those. And we have a quote here that definitely needs to be unpacked and I think has some really cool insights and is a shorter quote, which are usually the best. So I'm gonna just start us up immediately. We're gonna do Mahatma Gandhi right now. Here's the quote.

Practice is the best speech and the best propaganda. Practice is the best speech and the best propaganda. Four moves. Claim, counterclaim, essential question, storytelling. What's the claim?

What's he saying in this practice is the best speech and the best propaganda.

Steve 01:44
I think he is playing on this idea that actions speak louder than words. That if you want to get people to do things or inspire people to do things, you can give a great speech, you can provide very persuasive propaganda to move people emotionally, to think and feel a certain way. I just think of people who give really electrifying speeches. You can do that, but that doesn't actually affect change. That changes mindset, actually doing things and practicing things is what really makes change.

Dan 02:32
Okay. And I looked up propaganda because this is saying practice is the best speech and the best propaganda. So I looked up propaganda, and here's the definition. Form of mass communication that uses selective facts, emotional appeals, and loaded language to influence public opinion and advance a specific agenda. So, again, I don't know how close he was in thinking of what the true definition of propaganda is, but the idea that what you're doing is propaganda, Your actions have propaganda to them.

We usually associate propaganda with, you know, media, movies, basically lying to the public. And speech. And speech. It would definitely speech.

Steve 03:30
Because that's why I think he's wetting it with speech here.

Dan 03:34
Yeah. Yeah. Definitely speech. But he's saying that practice can be a propaganda. So emotional appeal, loaded language, you know, language, the language of practice, emotional appeal, and let's think of his fasts.

He knew that if the media came in and saw him starving, that could put more impetus for action on someone than any word he could utter or speech he could give when they see him dying by choice because he wants to make a point.

Steve 04:23
It's the action that's speaking. It's playing on the idea of speaking. That's what I like. When you do things, you're actually showing. You're communicating, you're conveying meaning through what you're doing.

You know, actions speak louder than words. Yeah. Gosh, you know, it's Tuesday. What is it? The October 27.

In one week, there's Election Day. And this makes me think of Election Day, actually, when you think of politicians saying, go out and vote or anybody promoting the civic virtue of voting. It's one thing to to use speech and propaganda to get people to vote. But it's another thing to actually go out and vote. Actually make the the commitment to do the thing that you're saying you're doing.

So anyway, this quote made me think of the language around voting and motivating people to do that.

Dan 05:33
And you're gonna get politicians to get on camera and show themselves voting. I mean, that's what they're trying to do in a contrived way.

Steve 05:43
Right.

Dan 05:44
And he's saying it's the best speech. Practice is the best speech. Mhmm. And the best propaganda. Yeah.

I mean, I do like that because a lot of people try to cut corners with it, and they feel they can manipulate people just by words. And we have politicians now that just... They're very articulate. But if you look at what their lives are like and the things that they do, you know, that's really what is giving more the best information as to who they are. And it usually is not positive.

I shouldn't say that. But a lot of times, it's not.

Steve 06:27
Another maybe more commonplace way of interpreting this might be the idea of role modeling. If you role model something for someone else, I mean, we could talk about voting, we could talk about sports, we could talk about academics, We could talk about learning the violin or whatever. By doing something, by modeling it, you're speaking it. You are arguing for it. You're making an emotional appeal for it.

I don't know. I like thinking about it in the context of role modeling because that's something that I think everybody can connect to, especially kids.

Dan 07:06
Yeah.

Steve 07:06
I mean, if you want if you want to be a good friend. Do you want to sit there and talk to your friend and try to convince them that being kind is really the nice, the best thing to do? Or do you just want to be a kind person towards them and practice it? And model it.

Dan 07:24
It's easy to slip in the gear of just preaching, but not practicing what you preach. Right. I mean, that's where this came from too. And it's... I don't know.

I... I'm liking the word propaganda just because

Steve 07:36
I do too.

Dan 07:37
We associate that with just emotional appeals for certain objectives. And the idea that your practice... See, we don't know what he he means by practice, and that's probably worth an essential question just to hop to the question, what does he mean by practice? Practice is the best speech. Practice in what?

Steve 08:02
Right. And in the context of where when he said this, he's talking about, you know, the practice of civil disobedience or things that are very Gandhi like in their spirit. But yeah, it's like what what practice are you talking about would be the contextual question to ask here. I like as well the emotional part of the propaganda. And you mentioned fasting.

When you see someone fasting because they believe so strongly in their values and the the motivation for change, then you have an emotional reaction to that if you see someone practicing that. So in that way, it is the best form of propaganda because someone is actually doing it in front of your very eyes.

Dan 08:52
Yeah. And you are getting an emotional reaction.

Steve 08:58
Trying to think besides

Dan 08:59
fasting, what's a way you could use practice for propaganda?

Steve 09:06
How about a coach before they order their team to do wind sprints? Say, I'm gonna join you on this one and challenge them to keep up with the coach. Practice is the best speech and the best propaganda. Yeah. That gets the team emotionally involved in wanting to to do better.

I mean, maybe that's a silly example, but...

Dan 09:30
Well, no, I got one, though, sports related, and I just did this at McHenry University today. Went and talked to some education students at... It's in Lebanon, Illinois. And I brought up the... It was a different quote, but I brought up Jim Valvano in, I think, 1983 with...

Was it NC State? Whatever his basketball team Yeah.

Steve 09:57
NC State, 1984.

Dan 09:59
They were not favored to win national championship at all. They were like an eight seed. But he had this ability to get his team emotionally tied to playing together and wanting to win together. So what he would do is at the end of practice, he'd have them cut down the nets in practice. Now why would he do that?

Because you cut down the nets after you win the national championship. That's the ceremony. You cut the nets down. But he's thinking, let's practice cutting nets down so that we get to the point where we cut the real one down. And that's practice.

That's not preaching stuff. That's like saying, you know what? Let's get up and cut the nets down. Your turn. But it's powerful.

The point is going through that process is powerful, and it had to do something for them.

Steve 11:06
And back to Gandhi, the practice of nonviolence. If you're you're protesting against the caste system, you do it nonviolent, you do it nonviolently because that's the best propaganda for it and the best speech against it. This is great. Are we ready for the counterclaim here?

Dan 11:24
Yeah, go ahead.

Steve 11:26
I haven't really thought through this much, but I'm thinking of I go right to parenting and how sometimes parents will essentially say things that they themselves might not follow. Sometimes practice isn't the best speech and the best propaganda. No. Sometimes it backfires. It backfires.

Dan 11:50
People don't trust if you're practicing not what you preach.

Steve 11:56
Well, but I'm thinking of examples where speaking and propaganda through speech is the better way to motivate people, where it's not the action necessarily. It is the speech. You know, gosh, what about if a parent tells their kid, don't drink alcohol before you graduate from high school? I can imagine a parent saying that and trying to persuade their child of that, but then know that they didn't follow that rule when they were a kid.

Dan 12:32
Yeah, that that that's a tough one. But

Steve 12:36
still it's an important thing to say, even though you didn't practice it yourself. Maybe I'm groping here, but...

Dan 12:46
No, I mean, I wanna come up with something a little bit more convincing, But, yeah, I mean, it is true. Sometimes you have to give advice that you don't necessarily take. Right. And and you're doing the right thing because you love somebody and you don't want them to make mistakes. I mean, I get that.

Yeah. I I might even just say he's saying practice is the best speech and the best propaganda. I'm gonna take the word propaganda and say the following. Explaining, articulating why you're convincing people, you know, using logic and speech to try to convince them why you're doing something is also a good tactic. It's not propaganda.

It's not, like, appealing to their emotions, but it's appealing to their intellect, like explaining why, you know, British colonial rule is unjust. Martin Luther King Jr. Was great at this. You know, why is The US constitution, the Bank of Justice is bankrupt?

Steve 14:05
You're saying logic or rational thinking is the best speech and the best propaganda?

Dan 14:12
I would say rational argument and articulation is the best speech. It's better than propaganda. So it's not practice, unless you're gonna say the practice means you're being very articulate and you're explaining the rationality behind your actions and arguments. No, that's speech to me. So I'm just saying that you don't have to appeal to emotions to have it be the most effective thing.

It could be appealing to someone's reason.

Steve 14:46
So you're yeah, you're really changing the what's said here and saying you want to take out the word propaganda. You don't want to think of this as an emotional appeal like propaganda. You want to put in rational thinking into it. Okay.

Dan 15:06
Yeah, I guess I am trying to separate speech and propaganda.

Steve 15:11
Yeah, you're on a different

Dan 15:13
I don't because those you know, when you think about it, they're appealing to different parts of us. So in a way, the quote's a little messy in that sense. Propaganda is emotional. Speech is is intellectual. But his point, back to his claim, practice, like doing something, is better than talking about it, and it's better than trying to get someone to get emotional and follow you because of, you know, what you're saying.

Steve 15:44
Yeah. And you're separating speech and propaganda. I'm combining those. Cause when you speak and you use propaganda, you use emotions to impact people, but you're you're separating them. Yeah.

Yeah. The counterclaim is the counterclaim is is difficult to articulate on this one.

Dan 16:04
Well, how about switch it up? Speech is the best practice and the best propaganda. Just flip it and just say, if you really wanna emotionally get someone and convince them of something, you need to talk because that is an effective way of having them empathize with you.

Steve 16:23
Maybe another way to to get at a counterclaim is that it's kind of what you're saying, that you have to ignite people mentally through emotions and speech. Before you can expect them to practice anything like it's almost like the first thing you have to do is move their soul and then you can get them to act. So that takes speech. Right, practice is the best speech and the best propaganda. Okay.

After it practices something that's important, maybe after you've moved them in different ways.

Dan 17:06
Okay. Yeah. It takes both. I mean, that's still a counterclaim. It takes both.

You can't do one or the other. But all he's saying is that practice is the best. Yeah. Like what you're doing in the end is going to be the...

Steve 17:22
That's hard to argue against. That is so hard to argue against. Usually, counterclaims come a little bit more naturally.

Dan 17:31
My question is about the word propaganda. And and really the word he uses practice. This is what my essential question is. What does he literally mean by practice?

Steve 17:47
In mind would be, what is it about practice That is so motivating. What is it about practice that is so powerful and compelling when people do things versus when they say things? What is it about practice?

Dan 18:08
I was... I'm thinking about that lifeguard who saved that kid in California, like, three months ago, and there's a video of it. Right? I mean, compare watching that and then hearing him just talk about somebody he saved or talking about what his job is and how he's gonna be ready when the time comes to save someone. You could say a lot of nice things, but it's not gonna be better than just doing it and having us witness it.

That's the powerful because we see him risk his life. Any other questions from you? I mean, what do you think?

Steve 18:58
No, it's just, you know, how does this quote relate to civil disobedience of Martin Luther King and other incredible leaders? How can this quote be connected? This really makes me want to connect something like this to curriculum, like in a social studies class. There's some really good extension inquiries out of this. Really good.

This is really good.

Dan 19:24
Yeah. Well, I love Gandhi. I mean, he's just yeah.

Steve 19:28
Practice is the best speech and the best propaganda.

Dan 19:34
Alright. That was a good one. Yeah. Gotta love Gandhi. And we will see everybody soon.

Back in the game, we're gonna try to get some of our teachers on here. I mean, we will get some of our teachers on here, and you can listen to more than just Steve and Dan. So we will be back soon. Take care. Alright.

Steve 19:55
Take care, everybody.