Richard Dawson, 12 August 2014

Have you ever said something and then realised that it could be taken completely the wrong way? I suspect it happens to us all but it’s so often a surprise that we’re hardly ever on guard for it. It’s especially galling in writing because one can hardly ever ’take it back!’ I was asked on Facebook the other day whether I was back (from overseas). In my haste I wrote ‘No home now’ whereupon I immediately got several responses asking me what had happened to my home (and other rather sarcastic things!) Still it showed me again how easily our communications can betray us. And this becomes all the more possible when we’re talking across several age ranges, genders and, of course, cultures. Add to that our propensity for believing the worst about ourselves, others and whoever else might enter the equation and you have a recipe for disaster. Whole wars have been fought, no doubt, on the misunderstood content of a few sentences. Take for example the dropping of the nuclear bombs on Japan. After calling for Japan’s surrender at the Potsdam conference the allies awaited a response. None came till reporters hounding Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki for an answer got one word—’mokusatsu’ which should have been translated ‘No comment’ Unfortunately it was translated ‘Not worthy of comment’ which then encouraged the worst single wartime tragedies in history. The Bible says ‘Guard your tongue’ which basically means be very very careful about what you say and never take for granted that there may be a difference between what you mean and what you’ve just said.