I am not sure of the precise point when information took on the elements of a barrage, what now feels like an eternal explosive babble, but it happened during my lifetime. In its overwhelming nature, that barrage confuses, distracts, and dulls thought. It both infuriates and encloses one in a secure area of like-minded ideas and thus is fundamentally shallow and sensational in nature. It is destructive of solitude and reflection and thus nuance and complexity. Our present political moment has added something even worse: we are now encouraged by lots of the content that appears on our screens to view those who disagree with us as less than human and therefore less than us in worth.
For all of those reasons, a commitment to clarity in thinking and expression is a discipline and a code, a behavior that must be practiced and honed; a way of behaving that has the quality of a consistent devotion. It becomes a defense against the barrage because in order to pursue it, we must slow down, stay patient, push aside any easy answer and spend time in reflection. It preaches ‘not yet’ instead of ‘yes yes right now’.
As I have gotten older, the value of clarity, always great, has acquired an additional moral imperative. It has become a matter of the gravest importance to set aside assumptions and see the person before me, whomever that might be, as presented.
Clarity is achieved only through effort and humility. We must distrust first impulses, easy solutions, the arrogance of certainty, the attractive sanctuary of dogma. We have to work for it. In addition, language itself is a rough terrain, filled with box canyons, old mines and wells covered by rotting planks, magnetic anomalies, waterless stretches. Such a landscape requires a good sense of direction, choices triple checked for accuracy, and a commitment to persevere even as we struggle with the shifting perspective of the unfolding country.
Yet, clarity is often fleeting for our imperfections of reasoning, speech and prose are often too encompassing to overcome, but the pursuit of its elusive solidity must be continued. Otherwise, we give in to the dreck and lies. Otherwise, we become lost in the barrage, content to fall back into the noise.
