[U]niversity of Vermont Professor Wolfgang Mieder, a world-renowned proverb scholar, likes to examine the use of such folk wisdom in the realm of political oratory.
The professor of German and Folklore, who has been teaching at UVM for 41 years, will present a lecture Wednesday evening with the somewhat imposing title, “The Golden Rule: Do Unto Others as You Would Have Them to Do You — The Function of Proverbs in the Sociopolitical American Discourse.”
Accordingly, it might be reasonable to think the current highly charged electoral climate would provide a rich display of metaphors and creative imagery that convey broader truths.
Not so fast.
“I couldn’t talk about Donald Trump even if I wanted to,” Mieder said in a recent interview. “He doesn’t use proverbs or metaphors at all.” In fact, the primary message of his lecture would not really apply to the political rhetoric of today, he said.
Regarded by many as the perhaps the world’s leading paremiologist, or expert on proverbs, Mieder instead points to other major social and political figures who have effectively used proverbs to help convey their message.
For example, Martin Luther King Jr. used both biblical and folk proverbs to advance the civil rights movement of the 1960’s, said Mieder, who is also the author of “Making a Way out of No Way: Martin Luther King’s Sermonic Proverbial Rhetoric.”
In his lecture, Mieder said he will talk about why King was so effective in his use of proverbs and how that tradition was carried forward by former President Barack Obama.
Obama used proverbs “to bring across his audacity of hope and to show he was able to express a positive political attitude,” Mieder said. “[He] was a person who had the power to pull young and old people along with his language.”
Mieder said he also will show how presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders sprinkle proverbs into their political speeches. In Sanders’ case, the UVM professor said, the Vermont independent senator repeats themes over and over again to express his message in a concise, albeit repetitive, way.
Among the lines cited by Mieder as those most often used by Sanders on the campaign trail are: “The rich get richer, the poor get poorer” and “Enough is enough.”
“The fascinating thing is if you look at Martin Luther King, Obama, Hillary Clinton and Sanders,” Mieder said, “with all of them, the Golden Rule is the common thread.”
In his lecture, Mieder is also likely to offer some insights into Vermont folk wisdom, the subject of his 1986 book, “Say Less and Talk More — Vermont Proverbs.”
As he said in the book’s introduction, “Some proverbs like, ‘It’s time to plant corn when icicles fall off the ledge at Snake Mountain,’ are obviously truly Vermont proverbs … and with caution one could perhaps say that this collection of folk wisdom reflects the stereotypical view of Vermonters.”
Most Vermont proverbs are agricultural in theme, Mieder said. He cites these examples: “The world is your cow, but you have to do the milking,” “The grass always looks greener in the other fellow’s yard” and “You have to hoe a row of corn with a man to know him.”
Mieder’s lecture on the Golden Rule is set for 5:30 p.m. in the Marsh room in Billings Library.
