Should words respect both facts and meaning?

How does one start to post one’s very first statement to the world? Does it matter what one says?  Well, yes it does. All writing should be the result of reasoned thought and, unless there are valid and good reasons, it ought to be grammatically correct.  Writing is a characteristic that makes humans completely different from any other creature on earth.  Other creatures can communicate by sounds and by gestures, but humans alone can communicate by a set of well defined symbols that are an easily accessed code. Written words are not what makes us human, we were human before we could write, but it is a highly significant mode of differentiating us from any other life form because it allows our thought to build generation after generation, and thereby enables the growth of wisdom and gives us a collective memory which we call History. Therefore I shall treat all my blogs with respect and with care, making sure that I check both spelling and grammar as well as content.  Elegance of expression is a more luxurious aspect that I hope to be able to employ, but I cannot and will not claim that distinction. Perhaps, if I am lucky, I shall find that people read my irregular posts and that they comment on them constructively.

This first post is about respecting words and the implications inherent in putting them together into sentences which then communicate ideas to the generally available readership. When I am writing what purports to be a non- fiction post I have obligations to the readership.  These obligations include a requirement to communicate facts unless otherwise stated.  There is no problem in expressing your opinion publicly, although no-one has the right to express an opinion that goes against the accepted facts if they cannot produce an argument supported by facts that are of equal relevance, though not so well accepted as having relevance to the issue on which they have expressed an opinion. The argument will have to try to convince the reader that the less accepted facts should be given greater weight.  A baldly stated opinion reveals only the possibility of psychological insights into the person giving the opinion.  Frankly, ill- informed opinion is worthless except to the psychologist.  That’s my opinion anyway.

For example, I might express the view that climate change has nothing to do with the burning of fossil fuels. This is not an uncommon view in many parts of the world.  However it is difficult to find facts that contradict the link between such burning and the changes in our climate.  The arguments of those who offer the view there is no link are frequently found to be devoid of relevant supporting facts, use reports and findings that have been discredited by subsequent, more accurate findings, attempt to suggest that they have more understanding than a generation of scientific researchers can offer and, rather too often, have an undeclared interest in the burning of fossil fuels.

I invite a challenge to my writing in every way.  The spelling and grammar, the relevance of the facts, the use of the evidence provided, the validity of the arguments; but I do not invite objections based solely on gut feeling, unsupported disagreement or outright hostile responses.  I shall do my best to respond to honest and relevant criticism, I reserve the right to ignore the rest.

start a new post.