Comes The Dawn

9

IDLE WORDS

Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.

—MATTHEW XII:36

Following a lecture of mine, a dozen or so people gathered around asking questions or seeking further explanation of this or that point. One man had something else on his mind. This gent, in disagreement with my freedom point of view, pretty much monopolized the time with heated argument—at once amusing and pitiful! I put this kind of an exchange in the category of idle words—for two reasons. First, I was not seeking light from him and, second, he kept the others from sharing such information as I might possess. To argue is nothing less than frivolity—futile verbiage! The following comment by Aldous Huxley sets the stage for this thesis:

Unrestrained and indiscriminate talk is morally evil and spiritually dangerous. . . . This may seem a very hard saying. And yet if we pass in review the words we have given vent to in the course of the average day, we shall find that the greater of them may be classified under three main heads: (1) words inspired by malice and uncharitableness toward our neighbors; (2) words inspired by greed, sensuality and self-love; (3) words inspired by pure imbecility and uttered without rhyme or reason, but merely for the sake of making a distracting noise.

These are idle words; and we shall find, if we look into the matter, that they tend to outnumber the words that are dictated by reason, charity or necessity. And if the unspoken words of our mind’s endless, idiot monologue are counted, the majority for idleness becomes, for most of us, overwhelmingly large.1

Let’s make it clear at the outset that disagreement is in no way to be disparaged. As explained in a previous chapter, differences are blessings; they are the way to truth. My only point is that to lock horns in argument is not a seeking process but a stifling one; it is not a stimulus to learning. Argument hardens those who differ in their respective differences.

Aldous Huxley, I feel certain, would not exempt even himself from those who use idle words. Perhaps no person has silenced himself perfectly in this respect. “And if the unspoken words . . . are counted”—words we think to ourselves but do not speak or write—what idle worders all of us are! In order to reduce our own idle wording and to be less victimized by the idle words of others, why not a few examples of this corrupting verbiage—something to serve as a guideline?

In which behavioral department of life do we find idle words in greatest quantity? No two answers can be identical. It depends on the scope of one’s views—narrow or otherwise—on the kinds of talk or writing that attracts or beguiles, on the quality of personal value judgments—shallow or improving. Thus, what follows is only my very uncertain ranking of sources in terms of their verbal density.

In today’s world, as I see it, political babble tops the list. While there are a few notable and laudable exceptions in public office—statesmen—the vast majority of those who seek election pay not the slightest heed to what they believe to be righteous. They are guided by one criterion: what idle words will gamer the most votes? Instead of standard-setters they are standard-upsetters—the curse of our times.

The tragedy is that most voters cannot distinguish a statesman from a politician and, thus, the latter, with their promises of something-for-nothing, have an edge in any political contest. Then, to implement their degraded schemes—political nightmares—those politicians cultivate an enormous bureaucracy of a like-minded ilk. We have in this utter immorality—idle words—an explanation for the present drive down the road to serfdom!

Let us reflect on another fact. Those persons who cannot recognize as fallacious the idle words they hear or read are in precisely the same category as the users thereof. Idle words uttered are no less deplorable than idle words believed. Indeed, were there no believers, there would be no users!

What behavioral department ranks next in its capacity to spew forth idle words? Second to the political sector I’d place the public media—again, with a few notable exceptions. I am speaking of radio, TV, newspapers and magazines. By and large, these media have no criterion but the sensational, that which attracts countless millions of sensation seekers. Their aim is not to rake in the votes; it is to rake in the dollars and with truth as much disregarded as by conscienceless seekers of political office. Parenthetically, this is not to condemn the acquisition of either votes or dollars, but only the misleading and dishonest means often employed to gamer votes or dollars.

Misleading? What goes on is fantastically distorted. If a plane crashes, that’s “news.” Nary a word about the millions of miles flown each day of the year in safety and comfort. Who wants to hear about the commonplace—the truth! If some big-name individual gets in trouble, it’s headlined day in and day out. This has an appeal to the sensation seekers. Not a word about the literally trillions of honest, above-board, commendable transactions that occur daily in the U.S.A. Briefly, misfortunes are dramatically featured; our blessings, millions of times more numerous, are rarely mentioned. Idle words galore!

So we come upon another fact. Those persons who are sensation seekers are no less the perpetrators of idle words than are the sensational fabricators! Were there none of the former, the latter wouldn’t exist—no dollars to rake in!

There are, of course, ever so many behavioral departments of life overburdened with idle words. The above two are but samplings of the most obvious. Now, for a commentary on an all but forgotten one and, thus, in today’s world, the least obvious: prayer by rote. For evidence that this was once known, refer to Matthew VI:7: “But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathens do.”

What do the heathens vainly repeat? Wrote Reginald Heber in 1812: “The heathen in his blindness, bows down to wood and stone.” This is by way of assessing what we observe more and more: obeisance repeatedly paid only to dollars, things, and the like—the material at the expense of the mental and the spiritual!

Those among us who are not heathens, the individuals who do in fact engage in daily prayers, are well advised to avoid prayer by rote—vain repetitions. Why vain? Prayer, or meditation, is intense mental action, and, to be meaningful, must have an appreciation of every word and thought. Otherwise, only idle words!

Is there a remedy for this idle-word syndrome? Indeed, there is: Golden Silence! This demands that we quiet all words—not just those that are spoken or written, but even those that are thought—forgo all words that are:

1. inspired by malice and uncharitableness toward our neighbors;

2. inspired by greed, sensuality and self-love;

3. inspired by pure imbecility and uttered without rhyme or reason, but merely for the sake of making distracting noise.

What then can be admitted into this silence to qualify it as Golden? As Huxley suggested, “words dictated by reason, charity or necessity.” We think in words. Thus confine our thoughts to those which advance not only our own emergence in awareness, perception, consciousness, but a refining charitableness to our fellowmen. Golden Silence calls for an observation of the Golden Rule.

Finally, is Golden Silence attainable? Hardly, for such achievement would presuppose the perfect person. However, if we know what the road signs are, we can head in the right direction—idle words diminishing as we progress.

• 1In Roman mythology, Aurora is the goddess of dawn.