Synaptic Sparks
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The YDOMist

Communication: A Lost Art

If I wish to communicate information to you, be it a fact, an observation, a feeling, or a belief, I do this with words. These words could be spoken or written.

I prefer the written word for things of importance. If the reader misses something, the reader can page back and re-read the words used. The written word is a record of information, a resource to be used. The written record is also evidence of what was actually presented and quite useful for analyzing why the communication failed.

If I want to be sure I am clearly conveying my concepts, I often re-read the words I write to double, triple, or even quadrupedal check my writing to make sure I am clear on the concept I am presenting.

I often find myself spending much time, selecting words like I would select where to place my feet attempting to walk up a snow and ice covered hill.

And yet many do not or can not understand what I present.

It is said:

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.

It is also difficult to get a human to understand something directly challenges the dogma of their beliefs about the world.

I submit that when I have communication problems, it is because I have rejected the superstitious beliefs of the dogmatic. Thus I'm a heretic, an apostate, and a blasphemer to be burned alive, even if those dogmatic folk are not theists.

I do not share their assumptions that the definition of specific words they use are the definitions I use. I will not assume, thus I ask "What, specifically, do you mean when you use the word "X"?

Asking that question, I have been told more that once, look it up in a dictionary. <sigh...>

I didn't ask you the dictionary term, did I? I asked you what, specifically, do YOU mean when YOU use the word "X"?

Attributed as Voltaire's Admonition: "If you wish to converse with me, define your terms."

Synchronicity: As I was focusing on writing this article, my long time friend asked me, "Do you believe in, The rule of law?" I replied, "Do you believe in gazorminumplaz? I can not answer when the word or term is not defined. What, specifically, do you mean by "law"?"

My friend totally ignored the gazorminumplaz question.

My friend is not the first nor the only human I have had this issue with. So I end up re-asking the questions in this manner: "What, specifically, are the traits, properties, attributes, characteristics & elements of "law"?"

It is my opinion that government schools are graduating students who can not read, nor think critically about what they read, deliberately.