The best theme I think you can find in this chapter would be how your words reflect you. The first thing that really jumps out at you from the chapter is verse 2: “Fools care nothing for thoughtful discourse; all they do is run off at the mouth.”
Ain’t that the truth . . .
At the time of writing there is a big debate going on in Canberra, about whether or not Australia should introduce a Carbon tax.
Now, there are excellent arguments both for (“increasing prices have a strong track record of influencing behaviour,”) and against (“Carbon reductions will be marginal at best”). But what is striking is how few of these you actually hear.
The against crowd tend to be saying things like “We don’t want another big tax on everything.” On the other hand the for crowd often project an image kind of like “This is a kitten. Isn’t it cute? If you don’t support the tax, it’s “So you want poor little fluffy here to die”
Note that neither side actually engages the other. We don’t have thoughtful discourse here. We have a slanging match, but nothing really other than that.
Our words do have power, like it or not –and we need to learn to use it correctly.
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