P.D. Mangan wrote this morning:
“Historically, writing progressed from pictographs to letters, but is now going in reverse.”
This is a trend I’ve been observing for almost 20 years, (coincident with the rise of the internet.)
We’ve drifted from the clear tools of speaking and writing.
We use emoticons and emojis rather than words.
Images rather than descriptions.
Memes rather than essays.
These visual forms of communication are faster and easier to generate than articulate speech or articulate writing. And for people in a hurry, with nothing precise to say, and nothing important to think, these forms of shorthand work fine.
But precision in thinking requires precision in speech. If you cannot precisely articulate your own thoughts, how in the hell will anyone else understand your thoughts?
A person who does not master the tools of speech and writing cannot pass his own ideas on to another person.
Symbols, images and memes all have power to communicate an idea. But they are low-resolution versions of specific ideas.
Percy Shelley famously observed that “poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.”
Not musicians.
Not sculptors.
Not painters.
Poets.
Master the use of language so you can master your thoughts so can pass them on to the world.
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