“Socrates said, ‘The misuse of language induces evil in the soul.’ He wasn’t talking about grammar. To misuse language is to use it the way politicians and advertisers do, for profit, without taking responsibility for what the words mean. Language used as a means to get power or make money goes wrong: it lies. Language used as an end in itself, to sing a poem or tell a story, goes right, goes towards the truth.
A writer is a person who cares what words mean, what they say, how they say it. Writers know words are their way towards truth and freedom, and so they use them with care, with thought, with fear, with delight. By using words well they strengthen their souls. Story-tellers and poets spend their lives learning that skill and art of using words well. And their words make the souls of their readers stronger, brighter, deeper.”
–Ursula K. Le Guin
there is much truth in this statement…
many current sources that influence other people’s lives through their words seem to do so without care, without thought or else with deliberate malice/self-interest/manipulative-intent aforethought.
I think it’s true that great care should be taken in the words we use when we are trying to communicate clearly and effectively but this should also be equaled by how carefully and critically we listen (or read). Lack of critical thinking skills is apparently endemic these days, as is the likelihood that we are constantly being manipulated by the media that propagates the words and/or writings of vested interests…
the power of increasingly ubiquitous mis- dis- and (so-called) mal-information largely arises from the listeners tendency not to critically evaluate what they are being told. the purveyor of manipulative words should be ashamed of their behaviour, but the unwary and uncritical listener must share the blame for allowing any words they hear, or read, to have the influence that they might seem to have!
