Arthur Jensen S Speech in Lumet S Network Essay

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Jensen's "The World is a Business" Speech from Network (1976)

The speech by Arthur Jensen in the 1976 film Network is given to an audience of one -- Mr. Howard Beale, network television news show host. It takes place in a large conference room, nicknamed "Valhalla" by Mr. Jensen. It lasts just over four minutes and its effect is profound in that it produces a radical transformation in the audience: Mr. Beale returns to his position as news show host and delivers, in turn, a speech to his own audience that essentially confirms the cynical viewpoint that Mr. Jensen has impressed upon him. Why is Jensen's speech so effective? As Leff and Sachs point out, it is not just "what was said" but "how it was said" that made it so persuasive. Thus, from a Neo-Aristotelian point-of-view, the parts of Jensen's speech add up to make a convincing whole. This paper will provide a rhetorical analysis of Arthur Jensen's "The World is a Business" speech from the Neo-Aristotelian perspective in order to show how "content" can be made even more persuasive when it is given a dramatic delivery.

Jensen's speech is perfectly tailored to his audience, Mr. Beale. Beale has risen to the top of the ratings by loudly and evangelically criticizing the mass media, the powers that be, and urging his viewers to take action, to stand up for themselves, to say, "I'm a human being -- my life has value!" After going too far for the network head's tastes, Beale is summoned to "Valhalla" to receive a talking-to from Mr. Jensen. Jensen essentially one-ups Mr. Beale in terms of style and ethos: If Beale represents the common man, short of answers but long of timber, Jensen represents the corporate world, totalitarian, monolithic, and unstoppable. Thus, he sets the stage and tone of the speech by walking Beale into the vast cavernous conference room, takes a few moments to theatrically darken the room by drawing the shades with a push of a button, saunters over to the head of the long twenty-chaired conference table, stands (Mr. Beale is seated at the other end, gaping at him as Jensen imposes himself on the scene by altering his warm, happy demeanor from a moment ago to the grim, dark, brooding authority-figure that he now appears to be), and thunders the opening lines of his monologue, which roars with absolute disdain: "You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale! And I won't have it!" His speech is as rhythmic as it is assertive, and his body language is perfectly attenuated to his words, as his arms go out at his sides, rise up like a conductor's, then make fists which are shaken at Mr. Beale as though they would like to bounce down the table and pummel him. The dim lights, the face and body of Mr. Jensen, spotlighted in the otherwise darkened, mahogany room, and the long table all serve to create an impression that is unforgettable. Would this speech be half as effective or forceful if it were given in a less obtrusive setting? It is perhaps unanswerable -- but the strategic delivery of this speech has clearly been pre-meditated for a reason: Mr. Jensen aims to stress a point and he wants the point delivered to Mr. Beale -- right between the eyes.

From the Neo-Aristotelian perspective, Jensen's speech follows the aesthetics of the medium outlined by Murray (1997) -- that is, immersion, agency and transformation. He first immerses his audience (Mr. Beale) in a sealed compartment from which there is no escape, isolating him at the end of a long table and placing a spotlight on himself so that there is nowhere else for Mr. Beale to focus. Then Jensen delivers his oratory with a booming voice that explodes out of nowhere, raining down on his audience with measured insistence, burying him beneath a tidal wave of sound and fury. This is the immersive part of the process, the mode of expression that grips Mr. Beale, hammering him with one thrust and blow after another. It is what gives the speaker his "personality" and gives his speech its force.

The audience is overwhelmed. Mr. Beale can do little but gasp as Mr. Jensen sets him straight, both in his manner and in the ideas which he presently conveys. "Is that clear?" he continues, as though scolding a wayward child. "Do you think you've merely stopped a business deal?" Jensen next asks -- but without the tone of the interrogative: it is stated as a declarative: there is no rising inflection at the end of it. Jensen is not here to ask anything of his audience: he is here to deliver messages -- and the question is posed merely for the sake of rhetoric.

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In short, it is a rhetorical question -- and, of course, Jensen himself has the answer, which he gives as he proceeds with his monologue. As Mateas (2000) notes, this is the "agency" portion of the speech -- "the feeling of empowerment that comes from being able to take actions in the world whose effects relate to the player's intention" (p. 1). Jensen's intention is to bring Beale to heel. "That is not the case," he continues. "The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country" he says as he points to his right, as though in that direction were the exiting dollars, "and now they must put it back!" he shouts, now emphatically pointing down at the table before him. "It is ebb and flow," he hollers, gesturing to his left and right, "tidal gravity," making a motion of himself being the center of the universe and bringing the world towards him as he reaches out both hands in front of himself and draws them in. "It is ecological balance!" he says, using his hands to outline the whole. "You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations! There are no peoples! There are no Russians! There are no Arabs! There are no third worlds! There is no West!" he continues, punctuating each terse statement with a full stop while aiming a finger into the air for each phantom entity before hurling it from existence. "There is only one, holistic system of systems -- one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multi-varied, multinational dominion of dollars! Petro dollars, electro dollars, multi-dollars, reichmarks, rands, rubles, pounds and shekels!" Here his tone softens and he speaks with more equanimity: "It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet," before again launching into the theatrical holler: "That is the natural order of things today!" The overly exaggerated nature of the delivery is the perfect dramatic counterpoint to Mr. Beale's electric rhetoric already depicted earlier in the film. Here the immersion is dark and subordinated and the rhetoric is heavy and bellicose, though alternated with snatches of calmed and subdued voice as though Jensen were alternately chastising and patting Mr. Beale, striking him and stroking him with comforting, soothing tones. This is all part of Jensen's intention to overpower his audience. This is his agency.

It is geared towards producing the final effect, which is transformation. Jensen proceeds to calm himself even more, to the point where he becomes like a soothing father. He slowly leaves his position in the spotlight at the head of the table and walks in the darkness towards Mr. Beale, continuing his speech, slowly, rhythmically, drawing his audience under his wing now that he has been cudgeled into submission. Jensen is not only transforming himself, after having hollered at Mr. Beale that he "will atone" for what he has done on the television, his also transforming his audience.

This effect of "transformation" on the part of the audience is also an important part of the speech in terms of Neo-Aristotelianism, as Wilchelns (1925) observed, marking the effect of discourse, or oratory, on the audience (including long-lasting effects) as the final aspect of the speech to be critiqued. A successful speech, in other words, is one that is impactful and efficacious. The speech of Mr. Jensen is precisely this, as it completely alters Mr. Beale's perception and convinces him that, as Jensen asserts, "the world is a business."

Thus, following Wilcheln's 12-point guide for speech critiquing (inspired, of course, by Aristotle's own guide in Rhetoric), one can quickly trace the effectiveness of Mr. Jensen's speech. There is the a) speaker's personality -- Jensen's alternates between overbearing and nurturing, b) the character of the speaker as viewed by the audience (Beale is in shock at the transformations of Jensen), c) the audience -- Beale, who is there to be reprimanded, held accountable, educated, and sent out on a new mission, reformed, d) major ideas: Mr. Jensen's major idea is that the world is a business and that a harmonious world is one "in which everyone has a share of stock" -- the happy utopia, e) motives….....

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