Men and Words

It sometimes seems that we live in an endless war of words in which people, for their own purposes, try to make other people think that certain things are so simply by saying that they are so. It is by this warping of words that commitments and contracts are sometimes clouded, that treaties and trusts are sometimes misconstrued, that laws are misread and misapplied. And even “inalienable rights” are often walked over by those who warp words for their own purposes. A distinguished jurist once said: “You cannot weigh a man’s testimony by his words” ⎯because the same words do not mean the same things to all people. Even sworn evidence does not have the same meaning when different men say the same things. And so there is danger in placing too much confidence in words unless we know the principles and purposes of the men behind the words. There is so much pleasant and plausible deception. There is so much flattery for the sake of policy or mistaken politeness. Words are so cheap, so plentiful, and often so meaningless. The word “honesty” for example to some means absolute honor. To others it is a mere technicality. What the word “plenty” means to some would be poverty to others. What the word “freedom” means to some would be slavery to others. And so it is with “integrity,” “chastity,” “honor,” and many other meaningful words. The boy who says he saw a million rabbits may have seen but two or three. And in talking with him we have to remember that he is a boy, and that millions to him is merely a manner of speaking. But it isn’t only boys who use words loosely and profusely. Perhaps most of us use too many of them and misuse too many of them. But the most regrettable misuse is when words are used deliberately to deceive rather than to tell the truth, to cover up rather than to reveal what should be known, to distort rather than to give a true picture. We have to know men to know what their words mean. We have to know whether or not their words are a cloak to conceal their thought or a tool to tell the truth. And we would do well to weigh each man’s words in terms of what he is inside, and in terms of his principles, his purposes, and his past performance.