The Complex of Communication

The trouble with free speech is that, half the time, you really don’t know what to say. Talk is cheap, after all. The spread of personal blogs such as these is a testament to the devaluation of opinion. Comments add further inflation, allowing others to berate and condescend as they please. Free speech — that’s a fallacy.

Indeed I’ve been cruel, myself, to others’ reckless release of words. Others in turn have likely taken offense. And I’m too lazy to talk about a recent complaint against a certain social climber’s column. Damn. There I go again. Perhaps the point I’m getting at is where does responsibility for what you say end and cursing begin?

We can’t be politically correct all the time. God knows that would be boring as hell. And reckless bantering? I guess the fact that gossip mags sell better than Time Magazine is proof enough.

So who’s listening to who if no one respects anyone’s opinion anymore? Should this suggest, then, that silence is power? Ah but if everyone expects everyone to say something, then not meeting that expectation speaks volumes.

Confused?

After a major in the fine art of written communication, so am I.

Though going back to silence, that's partly why I'd rather keep certain ideas to myself, or at least a close few. A little percolating and mild censorship goes a long way toward preserving the peace. The digested result is a tangled mix of political correctedness and overextended metaphors, so senselessly intertwined that they're best read as a riddle than an entry.

And as for the publication of opinion, there will always be conflict. But opinion, like reading, has always been a matter of choice.