Stop Listening

Public speakers need the public. Public speakers deliver a message of one kind or another. If that messages is not heard, there will be no reaction to it, no gain from it, no change brought about by it, and the speaker will soon change the message or stop speaking altogether.

Preachers know that. But so do those who speak messages that are divisive, dangerous, destructive, and damaging to our society.

People who wish to damage our society through speech tend to draw large crowds of disenters. While there is almost always someone who is willing to join such a person, the crowd that opposes the message is usually larger, louder, angry, and both camps are quick to create violence.

There is a better way. When a White Nationalist (name withheld on purpose) arrived at a University in Florida to speak, a huge crowd of “protesters” arrived to “shout him down.” When he was introduced  to the stage for his speech, the room was not empty. . .or almost so.

Believe me, almost no one enjoys speaking to an empty room, or one populated only by like-minded individuals, when they are sharing their belief/agenda/plan – right or wrong.

It appears to me that the best way to quiet someone who needs to be de-voiced is to deprive him of anyone to hear other than those who have already adopted the philosophy. if no one attends a gathering who is not already part of that particular foolishness, there will be no reaction to it, no gain from it, no change brought about by it, and the speaker will soon change the message or stop speaking altogether.

Fools entertaining foolishness and attempting to spread that foolishness to others, are a significant minority in our great Nation. If wise people never listen, they will become even less a factor in society.

Preachers know this kind of thing.