(October 29, 2012 at 10:40 am)whateverist Wrote: When I said "the best communication does not draw attention to itself" what I meant is that it makes you think about what has been said, not how it was said. I'm not advocating silence, just effective communication. Excessive use of 25¢ words and grandiose phrasing just get in the way. If a thing can be said plainly without loss of precision, that works best IMO.
(October 29, 2012 at 7:37 am)Brian37 Wrote: Huh? I don't see how silence works all the time. I think "lead by example" is ok, but this quote above can and is often used as a mentality to silence dissent.
Really? One example please. But I didn't have leading in mind, just communication. I guess you're really getting at persuasive rhetoric. I'm not really a big fan of verbal manipulation which shortcuts comprehension. That doesn't mean it can't be effective. Morally, I just prefer to deal with people in a respectful manner.
(October 29, 2012 at 7:37 am)Brian37 Wrote: How many times have atheists faced "I don't care that you are an atheist I don't wear my theism on my sleave".
That misses the point that others do and without some communication to counter that we'd be as marginalized as we have been in the past.
The best communication isn't always or never, but context of situation and effectiveness of tactic.
This all assumes that the point of communication is to persuade by any means necessary.
Ok, that is all well and good, so by going by your inititial quote you lent enough ambiguity for your communication to be missinterpreted. Which is far more important in text than in voice because you do not have tone and visuals to que off of.
But you do make a good point, unfortunately with politics and religion there really is no assumption, it is a fact that far too much in those relms the end justifies the means. If lying gets you a win or gains a convert that does the trick.
What people call the truth should not be assuming that communication is merely about perswading, but as long as you deal with humans they can lead others by the nose or be lead by the nose merely based upon what they want the truth to be, rather than face what is.
