The Loud Shall Inherit...
Let me share with you an expression I’ve heard recently, “tyranny of the loud”. Isn’t that a great affirmation? It refers to those who freely abuse rights that they do not, in fact, have by bullying those who believe that hurting the feelings of others is wrong. Heaven forbid that anyone stand up and tell them that they’re wrong, or out of line – that would be rude and would hurt their feelings. Woe be to the browbeater that squares their shoulders and tells the messenger to shut up. Said would-be peacemaker is now demonized, and incurs the wrath of the rest of the group. Never mind that the original proselytizer was wrong in the first place… Sides now must be drawn and feelings of the pontificator must be defended.
So, where did we go wrong? How did we allow this tyranny to come to pass? We trained ourselves to let it happen. We succumbed to the outright political correctness of the world. In those times when we read the rants and ravings of others, the ones that make the veins in our collective foreheads pulse and want for nothing more than to tell the bombastic blowhard to shut the hell up, we, instead, grit our teeth and shut ourselves up, in order to not create discontent. Thus, we allow the actual discontent to continue unabated.
How do we fix it? We have to allow the perception of rudeness to be yoked upon us, and open our mouths when they should be opened. We have to be the leaders, and take the heaps of scorn. And soon, soon enough, the rest of the throng will begin to see that it isn’t right to hurt the feelings of others, in the first place, and will join us in telling the pompous, self-applauding windbags to shut the hell up! Maybe. Just maybe. If we make a stand, perhaps we can make the world a little less miserable.
Speaking of miserable, you need to read this article...
Yes, cracked dot com. Yes, it is the same as the cracked magazine we used to read as youngsters. Yes, it is a serious article. Somewhat. Kind of. Okay, it is irreverent, but it is still a great article.
My personal favorite part was the study done by UCLA that indicated that only 7% of the communication effectiveness is determined by the words used. That leaves 38% for voice quality, and 55% for non-verbal communication to get our points across. The 38% includes tone and volume. A meager 7% of our communication skills are left to us when communicating in a non “face to face” environment. Like email, or IMs, text messages, blogs or e-lists. Pretty much the majority of our communications these days. Everything that people perceive us to be results from 7% of our communication skills.
No wonder there is so much misunderstanding out there, which leads to hate and discontent. Often we communicate poorly, setting the wrong tone in our messages. Okay, often we set the exact tone that we intend to, or, more to the point, others deliberately set the tone that they intend. And so often we just let it pass, for the sake of “peace”. And, in the long run, it is just making us miserable.
Sometimes we need to step up and say “is this really what you meant?” Sometimes it is simply a matter of poor communications, and should be cleared up, to avoid the simmering frustration that can build up in such a situation.
Sometimes it isn’t a mistake. Sometimes it is a deliberate abuse of our good natures, so sometimes we need to be the bully, and make it the more forceful “shut the hell up”.
We need to take the proverbial bull by the horns and retrain our e-groups not to accept the status quo. It has to start somewhere, and if not us, then who? Do we suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous misfortune? Or do oppose them, and in doing so, end them?
So, where did we go wrong? How did we allow this tyranny to come to pass? We trained ourselves to let it happen. We succumbed to the outright political correctness of the world. In those times when we read the rants and ravings of others, the ones that make the veins in our collective foreheads pulse and want for nothing more than to tell the bombastic blowhard to shut the hell up, we, instead, grit our teeth and shut ourselves up, in order to not create discontent. Thus, we allow the actual discontent to continue unabated.
How do we fix it? We have to allow the perception of rudeness to be yoked upon us, and open our mouths when they should be opened. We have to be the leaders, and take the heaps of scorn. And soon, soon enough, the rest of the throng will begin to see that it isn’t right to hurt the feelings of others, in the first place, and will join us in telling the pompous, self-applauding windbags to shut the hell up! Maybe. Just maybe. If we make a stand, perhaps we can make the world a little less miserable.
Speaking of miserable, you need to read this article...
Yes, cracked dot com. Yes, it is the same as the cracked magazine we used to read as youngsters. Yes, it is a serious article. Somewhat. Kind of. Okay, it is irreverent, but it is still a great article.
My personal favorite part was the study done by UCLA that indicated that only 7% of the communication effectiveness is determined by the words used. That leaves 38% for voice quality, and 55% for non-verbal communication to get our points across. The 38% includes tone and volume. A meager 7% of our communication skills are left to us when communicating in a non “face to face” environment. Like email, or IMs, text messages, blogs or e-lists. Pretty much the majority of our communications these days. Everything that people perceive us to be results from 7% of our communication skills.
No wonder there is so much misunderstanding out there, which leads to hate and discontent. Often we communicate poorly, setting the wrong tone in our messages. Okay, often we set the exact tone that we intend to, or, more to the point, others deliberately set the tone that they intend. And so often we just let it pass, for the sake of “peace”. And, in the long run, it is just making us miserable.
Sometimes we need to step up and say “is this really what you meant?” Sometimes it is simply a matter of poor communications, and should be cleared up, to avoid the simmering frustration that can build up in such a situation.
Sometimes it isn’t a mistake. Sometimes it is a deliberate abuse of our good natures, so sometimes we need to be the bully, and make it the more forceful “shut the hell up”.
We need to take the proverbial bull by the horns and retrain our e-groups not to accept the status quo. It has to start somewhere, and if not us, then who? Do we suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous misfortune? Or do oppose them, and in doing so, end them?
posted by Turtle at 2:08 PM
1 Comments:
This is very similar to the political landscape. The extremists on both sides tend to wail the loudest, while the moderates just try to get by. Unfortunately it's difficult to rally around a cry of 'can't we all just get along'. Alas the sheeple(no offence intended to thy lady) seem to prefer bleating to the loudest stimulus. It keeps them from having to think for themselves.(oops, was that just a tad bitter?) ;-)
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