No One Who Writes Can Hide His True Self For Long

Richard Fernandez at the Belmont Club has two posts on perception and public communication that dovetail into each other: "Words to Live By in the Online Age" and "Body Language". I commented on "Words":

Consider: that in the "post-literate age" of You Tube etc, the overwhelming passion continually returns to text-based communication: texting, tweeting, Facebook and Blogs. Every time the futurists proclaim the written word deceased, the public passion proves them wrong.

There is a great secret about the written word: it craves truth. And while lies may be written down they
cannot expand as far and wide and long as written facts and truths can. Human beings know this instinctively, it shows up in early childhood behaviour: every two year old will write his name on the walls, just as every
human being before him since mankind left the Garden, and God graced us with writing to help us along our lonely road.

No one who writes can hide his true self for long. Oh on the net, he may assume a persona of some type and promote a fiction for a spell, but contrary to popular myth, identity is not self. And it is self that comes
through when one writes.

Body language and tone of voice can hide the true meaning of spoken (heard) words. People may show more of their true selves in their written communication than is ever visible in their public behavior. Compare Mrs Palin's email correspondence with the email records from JournoList participants or from the Climategate files. Even comparing the textual nuances of speeches given by one speaker to differing audiences over time can reveal essential points audiences might miss: not simply talking points but the underlying marketing agenda is found in the words, not the body language.

It may take time, but in written form, even now, "at the length, truth will out", always.


"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." John 1:1