What is the mark of an effective communicator? To be sure, an effective communicator must be passionate about the message, but how should that passion be relayed to an audience? Certainly not with the belligerence we see displayed on social media. How can the public be expected to make sense of messages delivered with malice? The answer may be as simple as – we are not expected to understand them at all. Instead the intent is to provoke a response so ignorant, so violent that only carnage remains.
I have done a great deal of research on the urgent need for a coherent message that will unite those of us who desire to live in peace. In my reading, I came across these words:
We live in age disturbed, confused, bewildered, afraid of its own forces, in search not merely of its road but even of its direction. There are many voices of counsel, but few voices of vision; there is much excitement and feverish activity, but little concert of thoughtful purpose. We are distressed by our own ungoverned, undirected energies and do many things, but nothing long. It is our duty to find ourselves.
This message is as relevant today as it was in 1907, when it was included in an address given at Princeton University by Woodrow Wilson. It does not surprise me that we have made little progress in effectively communicating the message that we are all in this together, because there are many people committed to creating divisions that serve their own agenda. This is effortless for those who live for the sound bite. Abraham Lincoln said in his speech at the Republican State Convention in 1858, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” How’s that for a sound bite?
There will always be those whose goal it is to contort a person’s thoughtful remarks to further the uncivil war currently underway in the United States. Even those schooled in the art of communication can sometimes trip over their biases until both feet end up in their mouth. To rise above it I think Rudyard Kipling said it best when he counseled, “…If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,…”
Super Bowl MMXXI Knaves vs Fools.
Honie Briggs 
Many of us are hearing words echoing from other eras….the only thing that gives hope is that we’ve managed to make it through before.
(Good luck with the job hunt!)
Resilience. That’s the word of the day on all fronts.
I have a hard time being positive these days. Im tired of the selfish “I and me” sayers and wish for the collective “us and we” as one. ( make sense? ) greater good and all–
Well said, Honie. Good luck reentering the job force.
Less than positive is completely understandable. These are the times that try everyone’s soul. We have to breathe through it. Thank you for kind words, always.
I’m with Audra… and you. xo
Too few people study history and even fewer of us want to learn the lessons that are right there, in plain sight. 😦
Maybe humans are history averse because on a personal level so many of us try very hard to forget the past. I don’t know if there is a simple answer for why each generation repeats the same destructive behaviors as the ones before, but I think it is an interesting topic.
Maybe we’re just optimists? Nah…I think we just can’t believe that ‘it’ will ever happen to us…because we are better, smarter, stronger, whatever. -shrug-
Well, I’m no better than the next guy, and as for smarter…let’s just say I know my limitations. Stronger, though, that just keeps improving every day I wake up. What doesn’t kill us, ya know. -eye roll-
lol – yes!
Yes! This is lovely and powerful, Honie. I’m starting to suspect that one outcome of all the incivility and negativity we are currently experiencing is that more and more good people are answering the call to initiate positive change. While we do indeed have (more than) our “fair share of fools,” we also have legions of wise, generous, and thoughtful people who will turn the tide. Thank you for being one of them, and for expressing it so eloquently. Good luck in your job search.
Donna, I hope your assessment of the potential for positive change is correct. For me, I’ve seen evidence of it and am encouraged by the fact that I know more good people than fools. As for the job search, only time will tell.