Simple Speech Simple Life
There is an acronym to take to heart in all things. K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid)
Those of you that have read my past post, might realize that I prefer to keep things simple. I have found in my life that everything is really, very simple. Even something as complex as morality. Which of course boils down to, do or do not. Just about everything comes down to do, do not, yes, no, maybe, and depends. These simple words cover just about every question in life.
The US has a new secretary of education Betsy DeVos. During her confirmation hearing she was asked a lot of questions that should have been simple answers. One of them was from Senator Murphy, "Do you think guns have a place in or around schools?" This was a simple question with a yes or no answer. DeVos response was, "I think that's best left to locals and states to decide." Fine, she thinks it should be left up to the states, but that was not the question. The question was what's her opinion. Which has nothing to do with anyone else and nothing to do with the states. The only proper answer there would have been yes, no, or depends. She could have then elaborated on what it depended on.
I watched a recent debate between Bernie Sanders and Ted Cruz. In that debate Senator Sanders asked Senator Cruz if he thought health care should be a right. Cruz's response was basically access to healthcare is a right. The answer should have been a simple no. He could have then went on to explain that he thinks access to health care is a right, but a simple no should have been said first. It's almost like Cruz was trying to avoid saying healthcare shouldn't be a right. Well, if you try to avoid saying it, it's be cause you know it's a bad answer.
That has just been a couple of recent and somewhat famous times people have tried to avoid questions with word salad. The line of thought seems to be if they spit out enough words people will think they are saying the opposite of what they are really saying. Sadly, this is true for many people. I have realized that anytime someone talks for a while from a simple yes or no question it's because they are lying, ashamed of their answer, or simply don't know what they are talking about.
I have been told recently that moral questions are complex and take a lot of explaining to make sure all the details are covered. I say, bullshit. Here is just a few examples. Should I hit this person for being a dick? No. Should I own another person? No. Should I help the homeless guy asking for money? Maybe. Which of course leads to more questions, but that fine. Every moral question is this simple.
One of the harder questions in this line of thinking is the classic moral dilemma. There is a train coming down the tracks. You are standing at a switch that could either divert the train to a track with a small child on it, or to a track with a large group of adults. The question being, what should you do? More accurately, who would you kill? Well, let's reword the question to make it a set of yes or no questions. Should you divert a train to kill a small child? No. Should you let the train kill a large group of adults? No. Neither is a yes so the question then becomes, Is a single child worth more than a group of adults? No. Well, there it is. Sorry kid, you should have had better parents to keep you off the tracks.
Moral questions are not hard. Political questions are not hard. There is really no question that hard if you understand the subject. However, there are bad questions. When did you stop beating your wife? Which of course implies there was wife beating to start with. My simple answer is, before I started. Even bad questions can be answered simply.
Once you have parsed and simplified what people say life becomes much simpler. Questions are simpler. You start to see life is simple. Thus, simple speech is a simple life.
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| From: uvic.ca |
The US has a new secretary of education Betsy DeVos. During her confirmation hearing she was asked a lot of questions that should have been simple answers. One of them was from Senator Murphy, "Do you think guns have a place in or around schools?" This was a simple question with a yes or no answer. DeVos response was, "I think that's best left to locals and states to decide." Fine, she thinks it should be left up to the states, but that was not the question. The question was what's her opinion. Which has nothing to do with anyone else and nothing to do with the states. The only proper answer there would have been yes, no, or depends. She could have then elaborated on what it depended on.
I watched a recent debate between Bernie Sanders and Ted Cruz. In that debate Senator Sanders asked Senator Cruz if he thought health care should be a right. Cruz's response was basically access to healthcare is a right. The answer should have been a simple no. He could have then went on to explain that he thinks access to health care is a right, but a simple no should have been said first. It's almost like Cruz was trying to avoid saying healthcare shouldn't be a right. Well, if you try to avoid saying it, it's be cause you know it's a bad answer.
That has just been a couple of recent and somewhat famous times people have tried to avoid questions with word salad. The line of thought seems to be if they spit out enough words people will think they are saying the opposite of what they are really saying. Sadly, this is true for many people. I have realized that anytime someone talks for a while from a simple yes or no question it's because they are lying, ashamed of their answer, or simply don't know what they are talking about.
I have been told recently that moral questions are complex and take a lot of explaining to make sure all the details are covered. I say, bullshit. Here is just a few examples. Should I hit this person for being a dick? No. Should I own another person? No. Should I help the homeless guy asking for money? Maybe. Which of course leads to more questions, but that fine. Every moral question is this simple.
One of the harder questions in this line of thinking is the classic moral dilemma. There is a train coming down the tracks. You are standing at a switch that could either divert the train to a track with a small child on it, or to a track with a large group of adults. The question being, what should you do? More accurately, who would you kill? Well, let's reword the question to make it a set of yes or no questions. Should you divert a train to kill a small child? No. Should you let the train kill a large group of adults? No. Neither is a yes so the question then becomes, Is a single child worth more than a group of adults? No. Well, there it is. Sorry kid, you should have had better parents to keep you off the tracks.
Moral questions are not hard. Political questions are not hard. There is really no question that hard if you understand the subject. However, there are bad questions. When did you stop beating your wife? Which of course implies there was wife beating to start with. My simple answer is, before I started. Even bad questions can be answered simply.
Once you have parsed and simplified what people say life becomes much simpler. Questions are simpler. You start to see life is simple. Thus, simple speech is a simple life.
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