Communication and Truth

Recently, I made a post about Trust and Respect. In the time since then, I have thought of some interesting connections between what was written then now.

Before proceeding further, I offer my standard disclaimer and these words: look beyond the manner in which something is communicated and think about the content of what is actually said.

Communication involves the transmission of knowledge, ideas, emotions, etc. through various media [print, internet, verbal, etc.]. Communication has two primary characteristics that must be kept in mind when communicating and being communicated too:

1. The substance or content of what is being said;

2. The audience of said communication

First, the content of communication must be rational, coherently stated/presented, and, most importantly, it must be true. Simply stated, to be rational means to correspond to the facts of reality i.e. what one says must be in accordance with the laws of logic and cannot contradict reality. The entire communication must be done in such a way that anyone can, with sufficient background knowledge, follow and understand what is being communicated. Truth and Rationality are directly related in the sense that to be true means to be consistent with existence, including the knowledge and available facts of the particular context about which one is communicating.

Secondly, one’s audience must be communicated to in a manner that is neither too advanced for their knowledge nor in such a manner that can be objectively inferred as being insulting to the audience. For instance, one doesn’t discuss abstract philosophy with elementary students nor should one use baby-talk when communicating with adult audiences.

A special note about sarcasm and comedy is required.

Comedy represents a special form of communication in which various ideas, commentaries, and the like are conveyed with the use of jokes, sarcasm, and foul language. Typically, comedy is understood by the audience to be just that, comedy; hence everything said in that context shouldn’t be taken too seriously; furthermore, since comedy typically insults a great deal of people, then one should be prepared for that and have sufficient self-esteem to not be too insulted by what is joked about/said i.e. get over it [up-to a certain point; there are some objectively offensive things that shouldn’t be joked about, but those should be well understood by even a semi-rational audience/individual!]. Beyond this, sarcasm is a common tool of communication and one should utilize two distinct approaches when dealing with sarcasm:

1. Evaluate the context in which sarcasm is being used and determine whether to take what is being communicated seriously or not;

2. Recognize that sarcasm is, most likely, being used in response to something else, so use that as an opportunity to make a serious check or introspect about what the specifics of the situation are and proceed from there in a rational manner.

As a general rule, one should always take what is said at face value and go from there i.e. one should not try to rephrase or ‘dress-up’ or anything like that what is being communicated; rather, one should treat the communication as though the communicator is 100% serious about what they are communicating.

Notice the link between proper communication, Trust and Respect.

To maximize one’s effectiveness at communicating, one must ensure that that which one communicates is True. When one communicates the Truth, then one will gain the Respect and Trust of others because they will recognize the Rationality you are displaying by communicating the Truth to them.

To quote Rand:

“Rationality is the recognition of the fact that existence exists, that nothing can alter the truth and nothing can take precedence over that act of perceiving it, which is thinking — that the mind is one’s only judge of values and one’s only guide of action — that reason is an absolute that permits no compromise — that a concession to the irrational invalidates one’s consciousness and turns it from the task of perceiving to the task of faking reality — that the alleged short-cut to knowledge, which is faith, is only a short-circuit destroying the mind — that the acceptance of a mystical invention is a wish for the annihilation of existence and, properly, annihilates one’s consciousness.

“Truth is the recognition of reality; reason, man’s only means of knowledge, is his only standard of truth.

“Honesty is the recognition of the fact that the unreal is unreal and can have no value, that neither love nor fame nor cash is a value if obtained by fraud — that an attempt to gain a value by deceiving the mind of others is an act of raising your victims to a position higher than reality, where you become a pawn of their blindness, a slave of their non-thinking and their evasions, while their intelligence, their rationality, their perceptiveness become the enemies you have to dread and flee — that you do not care to live as a dependent, least of all a dependent on the stupidity of others, or as a fool whose source of values is the fools he succeeds in fooling — that honesty is not a social duty, not a sacrifice for the sake of others, but the most profoundly selfish virtue man can practice: his refusal to sacrifice the reality of his own existence to the deluded consciousness of others.” (Atlas Shrugged)

What does one communicate about and what do others communicate about? Various aspects of Reality. What determines the truth or falsehood of what is communicated? Reality. What means and/or standards does one evaluate truthhood or falsehood of communication? Reason. What values are gained and which virtues are displayed by communicating in accordance with reality? Trust and Respect [amongst others].

Given this connection, one can then see the link to proper evaluation of an individual and their character. To the extent that they are rational in their actions, including how they communicate, is the extent to which they are worthy of one’s Trust and Respect. Obviously, one cannot drop the context about any particular individual that they are evaluating i.e. one must always bring to bear one’s total knowledge about a person when judging them; however, a greater weight or importance must be given to more recent [chronologically speaking] considerations AND a recognition of change (or at least a serious effort and progress towards change) in one’s character must be made, for better or for worse.

As a final note, who one chooses to communicate with or whose communication one chooses to engage with is solely, properly speaking, within one’s own choice and no one else’s; that being said, there are various contexts in which communication can occur, and each context does possess unique characteristics regarding the properness of communication etiquette governing it. Such a discussion of the specifics is beyond the scope of this post; however, a couple general principles should be mentioned to assist one in communicating in any context:

1. Trader Principle- whether being the communicator or communicatee, one should always keep in mind that, in the interpersonal realm, one is offering value(s) and receiving value(s); hence the act of communication [whether initiated by oneself or by someone else] serves, in most cases, as a means of conveying or showing value.
2. Benevolence- one must hold either a benevolent or malevolent view of both reality and of other humans; ideally, one holds a benevolent premise and grants a baseline level of good will and respect to every person they meet/interact with on the basis of the potential for goodness that lies within every individual human due to their possession of a volitional rational consciousness; hence, one does NOT judge a person until after sufficient evidence is gathered to make a rational and objective judgment of them [this applies in reverse too!].

All in all, communication relies on two primary considerations as applied to various contexts with two cardinal principles to keep in mind. The virtues of Trustworthiness and Respectability as well as the corresponding values of Trust and Respect are demonstrated and, potentially, earned when one communicates in a Rational manner.

I thank you for reading all of this, I hope you found this useful.

As always,

Choices=Reality