More than any time in history
a person’s words can come back to bite them. Whether one’s words are on video,
audio, a newspaper reporter’s notes, or spoken in a coffee klatch…comments can
be captured and regurgitated at a later date. Jesus said, “For by your words you will be
acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matt 12:37 NIV).
1 comment:
Gail;
-----It isn’t completely true that now more than ever a person’s words can come back and bite him. More than ever words are being pulled out of context or assigned meanings by accusers that their speakers did not intend. Those words, now charged up with poison, are sent back to bite the speaker who may have truly meant them as doves. The most pitiful example of this was Howard Cosell's exclamation, “Look at that little monkey run!” made at a 97 yard kick-off return in 1973. He lost his career over an expression which many celebrities -said to know him closely- claim he lovingly applied to his own grandchildren, who of course weren’t black. I’ve heard other people get publicly castigated for using the perfectly expressive word “niggardly.” Sorry to make it sound only like a “black thing.” It isn’t. Watch your words carefully around women, gays, and transgenders, too, and handicapped people, mentally impaired people, short people, overweight people, and not to forget…Muslims (Oh, my!)
-----Nor does only the left-wing news media poison words to shoot back at unwary users. It happens amongst friends, family members, and unfortunately, husbands and wives, elders and church leaders, and most damaging of all, by comedians. The truth is, people are not smart enough to formulate sound, logical arguments for their positions. Logic is an intensely demanding process of research, thought construction, and validation testing. Many, maybe even most heuristically derived ideas fall apart somewhere in that process and thus need either scrapped or painstakingly corrected. People don't make time for such “excessive thought.” Most are too intellectually lazy to even learn the process (Oops. Did I say that?) Darn right I did! So when it’s time to bring an argument to the support of a favored position, they have none. Their only recourse to gaining their own way is to destroy the character of whoever is between themselves and what they want. Often it is a word spoken by their “target” that will drive home the poison.
-----Comedians do the most damage with this subtle form of lying. People know they only joke. But people are as irresponsible towards understanding psychology as they are towards developing logical skills. Heurism does not thrive upon the world of information and reason. It is a beast of emotion and approximation. And people know most of their “generalizations” by heuristic “deduction” rather than by informed deduction. When somebody they deeply admire (a comedian, for instance) makes a statement, they're sure to remember it. Now laughter is an emotional doorway to acceptance. So when George Allen’s careless disrespect for a cameraman drew from him the word “macaca,” left-wing comedians quickly poisoned his entire character with this human error no more significant than many of their own. They heuristically engaged a jury of piercing jokes to sell their scorn. George Allen was a very fine Senator. It’s why his careless word was deployed to tear down the great public image his character built up. This couldn’t have been done without the many social inroads blazed by blathering comedians.
-----It is important to speak your mind affectively for the truth (Malachi 3:16.) But you are correct in that we must watch even the good, useful, and true words we employ. For if our words themselves don't bite our own backs, reality assures that some nearby skink has the poisoned twist they need to ruin us.
-----Be careful out there.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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