“No, it isn’t. No combination of words can be a fact because words are not facts and facts are not words. This revolts the word-addicted mind. Oh, well.
Hamlet (wearily) to Polonius when asked what he is reading: “Words, words, words.” Nothing real.”
“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.
— George Bernard Shaw
I don’t know if this makes any sense but, ‘react’ and ‘respond’ are not synonymous.
For me a reaction is something instantaneous and conditioned, whereas a response is slower and considered.
The former is a basic, unnuanced form of expression whereas the latter allows for all the subtleties of respectful communication.
Each have their place but I think we get ourselves into all sorts of avoidable conflict by thinking we’re responding when we’re actually reacting.
“To remain still, to turn from knowing to simple awareness – without choosing, without direction, in open unknowing – really, that is all that is needed. It is so simple, so unproblematic, that we find it the most difficult thing, simply because it seems too good to be true. And yet it is the truest encounter this life affords. In the end, there is nothing else.”
“Thoughts are natural events that you do not possess, and whose meaning you only imperfectly recognize.”
— Carl Jung
“The advantage of so-called ‘free will’ is indeed so obvious that civilized man is easily persuaded to leave his whole life to the guidance of consciousness, and to fight against the unconscious as something hostile, or else dismiss it as a negligible factor. Because of this, he is in danger of losing all contact with the world of instinct. This loss of instinct is largely responsible for the pathological condition of our contemporary culture.”
— Carl Jung