Monday, July 23, 2007

Comment- A Reply to Ratbert's Comment

Thank you for getting back to my comment on your blog. I partly wrote on yours because the monologues we construct can easily become esoteric if we are not careful. I do however realise the context in which you are writing and the intended audience.

As Derrida says, the ancient Greeks referred to writing as a gift with mixed implications, a ‘Pharmakon’- something somewhere between a medicine and a poison- something like a ‘drug’. We seem to need it to communicate over the distances we have built between one another, over time and space, yet I fear it induces as much misunderstanding as understanding in the way we tend to use it, whether it be on the side of writing or reading. Like Socrates advised, it always needs to be balanced with the living appreciation of truth, with philosophy, with ultimate values.

Fortunately, your writing has enough a mix of creativity and articulation for the meaning to be clear to any fair-minded reader, even those who may not agree with the conclusions reached there. It brings clarity, not confusion. But we need to be careful, lest we mistakenly communicate something less than our highest intentions and become no more than just another opinion writer. I think we need to always remember our ultimate values, to balance our views with reference to them.

Right now, through the Internet, we have an incredible opportunity for people to share their views like never before; but like any technology, it all depends upon how we use it. Seeing our recent surge in technology being utilised as much for war as for medicine makes me realise that this world will be defined by what is written in our hearts, where the essential progress lies. Our cleverness must be ruled by our compassion.




No comments: