SOUND BITES

dECEMBER 14, 2008

You've heard of soundbytes?  It is one of those words that has entered our culture's vocabulary since the advent of computer technology. A byte is a tiny chunk of computer data.  A soundbyte, then, is a very brief statement.  The word is used to describe what politicians and other figures in the public eye try to achieve in their speech, namely, to utter a few memorable words that lend themselves well to being quoted in their entirety in today's fast‑paced TV news programs, where brevity is a virtue and no one has more than a few seconds to make his point.

I would like to play on that word and talk about sound bites.  I mean the use of speech to "bite", that is, to attack, another person.

To be able to speak to communicate with words is one of the things that makes us human.  While animals can make grunts, growls, and other sounds to communicate, they cannot speak words. Only we can.  Lest we forget how vital speech is to our interaction with one another and with our world, try to imagine what it would be like not to be able to talk to or with one another.  How would we communicate important technical information to one another?  How would we discuss important problems and explore solutions?  How would we express important truths?  How would we express love?  Without words, we'd be like, well, animals.

Speech not only enables us to express ourselves and reveal our inner worlds of thought, feeling, and desire; it also gives us power.  And all power can be used for good or evil.  Speech enables us to witness to the truth, or to distort or manipulate it for advantage.  We can raise our voices to cheer someone, or we can raise them in anger as weapons of destruction.

So important is a right use of speech that God saw fit to govern it by handing down to Moses, as the eighth of the Ten Commandments, "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor".

There's a lot packed into that commandment, and I want to recall some of it.

False witness, that is, telling lies, especially when it is done publicly, is to act contrary to the truth in a way that is gravely wrong.  An even graver wrong is to commit perjury, i.e., to lie after taking an oath to speak the truth.

Beyond the obvious wrong of lying, it is also a moral offense to be careless about the truth in our speech.  Distortions of the truth can also take the form of flattery, adulation, or complaisance.  By adulation and complaisance are meant, in this context, words that encourage and confirm another in wrong behavior.  A false sense of friendship and a desire to please and avoid conflict are often causes of avoiding the truth and speaking falsehoods instead.  Boasting is also a distortion of the truth.

None of these offenses against the truth, however, are in general as morally grave as the use of words as weapons of aggression and harm.  Respect for the reputation of persons because of their fundamental dignity as sons and daughters of God requires that we never indulge in any word or even any attitude that risks causing them unjust injury.

How does this happen?  By rash judgment, in which one assumes as true, without sufficient foundation, the moral fault of a neighbor.  By detraction, in which, without objectively valid reason, one discloses another's faults and failings to persons who did not know them.  Detraction occurs routinely in gossip, and, again, it is immoral.  It is using speech to "bite".  Far worse is calumny, which involves making remarks one knows to be contrary to the truth, thus harming the reputation of others and giving rise to false judgments about them.

The best way of avoiding these moral wrongs is to follow the counsel of Jesus, "Judge not, that you be not judged."  We should suspend judgment in all matters about which we have insufficient information, and, more than this, we should be careful to interpret the words and actions of others in a favorable way, to the extent this is possible.

Isn't it curious that in our modern, democratic culture, so sensitive to issues of rights, that the right to respect and to a good reputation are so often overlooked?  How is it that a people that champions freedom in all its forms has so little to say about freedom from speech that is rude, disrespectful, insulting, untruthful, or hateful?

In our society that has unprecedented means of increased communication, let's resolve to take the bite out of our words.  More than that, let's resolve to use the power and gift of speech to give to others the gift of words of kindness, compassion, and love.

+Bishop Raymundo J. Peña

last updated 11-Jan-2010 8:22 sitemap