Speaking With Virtue
Project: The Total Library

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

Every word we speak resonates with the history of all those who have spoken before us. Residual memories of thoughts, emotions, life and even death become part of an evolving interaction. Language is by no means perfect. It is malleable, relative, and easily abused. As long as there is more than one point of consciousness any form of communication will be flawed at best. Yet there seems to be an indelible force, an inner momentum which moves beyond any misunderstanding or barrier. Words hold a subtle power that stirs the soul. That power is sincerity. It lives inside every moment you speak from the heart. The power is not in those who create abstraction, withhold or obscure information, using language as an end to a means instead of “an end in itself.” Those who are sincere dissolve the facade every time they speak. They restore the integrity of every shared context and widen the path by which the listener can meet them.

Wed, Feb 17, 2010  Permanent link
Categories: language, Virtue
Sent to project: The Total Library

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