Bill Gates - The Next Outbreak Were Not Ready - Essay Example

Bill Gates: The next outbreak? We’re not ready Bill Gates is one of the richest men in the world after making a fortune out of his company Microsoft. He has a soft spot for creativity and innovations and is known to support and mentor many young innovators through his Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Over his career life, Bill Gates has made a name for himself through philanthropy in many areas ranging from healthcare to education. In this particular talk, he is talking about the Ebola epidemic and the lessons that can be learnt from the tragedy. He further provides possible solutions to tackling Ebola and any other outbreak that may face the world in future. Being a technology genius, it is obvious that he would incorporate technology in his proposed solutions. In fact, a large part of this talk revolves around the potential that technology has in responding to such outbreaks. Although Bill Gates uses all the rhetorical strategies of pathos, logos, and ethos, his strength stands out in using the strategy of logos. With all the experience that he has at the top level management, it should surprise no one that Bill Gates possesses such incredibly perfect oral skills. In particular, he articulates his speech in a way that influences the audience’s perception about him. The strategy of ethos is evidently common in his talk. To begin with, he has a very good past record in philanthropy and especially in the field of healthcare. Someone can literally see that the audience agrees with his points because they trust that he knows better. In addition, the audience is eager to hear from him and erupt in uproar once he appears. This behavior says a lot about Bill Gates credentials among the average citizens. On the other hand, his extrinsic ethos is not too strong at the initial stage because many people know that he has never practiced in the health care sector. For example, Bill Gates knows very little about the plight of medical practitioners that are faced with the task of combating Ebola. The audience, perhaps think that he cannot speak about the issues of Ebola and that his involvement is only limited to the donations that he makes. However, as he starts to speak, his extrinsic grows from level to level owing to his knowledge on issues to do with health care. The audience gains trust and confidence in the speaker and shift their sitting patterns to become more attentive (Haaften, pp. 67). Every speaker is fully aware of the importance of using pathos strategy in appealing to the audience’s sense of identity and emotions (Gibson, pp. 72). Bill Gates is aware of this fact. In his opening statement, he gives an example of how, in his early years the biggest tragedy that they were afraid of was nuclear war. He states that their houses had basements full of cans that had ample food to last them the duration of the war. By giving this example, he not only relates to the tragedy of Ebola but engages in an appeal to convince the audience that the tragedy concerns him as much as it concerns the population. This way, the audience now trusts him to be relevant in what he talks about. In the same talk, Bill Gates displays his vast knowledge in the subject of Ebola. In fact, he goes ahead to reveal facts that a doctor would find hard to do such as the prevalence rates and the microbiology behind the spread. He gives an example of a flu that killed over 39 million people in less than a year in 1918. These statistics convince the audience that he is best suited to give the talk on the solutions to Ebola. It is almost hard to think that he is not a medical practitioners because of the expertise with which he discusses these statistics. He further appeals to the emotions of the audience by personalizing the Ebola epidemic. He states that though the world is not ready, we should keep going. In his entire speech, Bill Gates shows that everyone is affected by the epidemic and that we are all at a loss if an amicable solution is not sought. In so doing, he instills the fear of death to bring his point of working towards a solution home. Most importantly, Bill Gates relies on the strategy of logos in articulating his talk. This strategy is particularly useful in logically convincing the audience of the merits of each solution proposed and in analyzing the negative impacts of the Ebola epidemic (Brooks, pp. 59). Bill Gates uses the death statistics to convince the audience that the most deadly tragedy is no longer war but a highly infectious virus – Ebola. Indeed the audience can relate with these facts because it is evident that Ebola has killed more people than war. He attributes the reason for this vulnerability to the fact that the world has invested so much in nuclear deterrents for example and very little on curbing epidemics. The world is therefore much more prone to epidemics than it is prone to war. In concluding that the world is not ready for another epidemic, Bill Gates argues that the world does not have a system to fight Ebola at all. The world was slow in responding to the catastrophe that was Ebola because there was no strategy against the epidemic. He states that in about one year, more than ten thousand people had died from Ebola, all of them being citizens of West African countries. This claims make the audience realize the seriousness of the tragedy, and uses logic to convince them rather than relying on emotional appeal. In articulating his arguments, Bill Gates does not rely on just one strategy of appealing to the audience. His approach is so effective because it focuses on striking a balance between the various strategies of ethos, logos, and pathos. Each of these strategies is used interchangeably and in combination with the others to produce a free-flowing talk. It is quite evident that his talk achieves much more because of the effective use of the three strategies. However, his talk is evidently inclined towards the logos strategy due to the need to logically prove the facts he lays claim to. Works cited Brooks, William Dean. Speech Communication. 2d ed. Dubuque, Iowa: W.C. Brown, 1974. Print. Gibson, James W. A Reader in Speech Communication. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1971. Print. Haaften, Ton Van. Bending Opinion Essays on Persuasion in the Public Domain. Leiden: Leiden UP, 2011. Print. http://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates_the_next_disaster_we_re_not_ready#t-209597 Read More