VALUING SOPHISTICATION:
An individual alone will tend to think;
an individual in society will tend to talk.
as it manifests itself in the social mode. Those who think rather than talk
tend to be regarded as not cooperating with society; this encourages talking and discourages thinking. Whereas thinking progresses through falsehood to truth,
discarding the interim products of falsehood, talking progresses through falsehood to truth,
retaining the interim products of falsehood. Thus many heads are filled with falsehood,
generated by the process of talking,
and these falsehoods are repeated in later talking.
Talking is not usually motivated by the search for truth,
but rather by the search for approval;
thus approval is given
to those who say something already believed,
to those who say something interesting,
and to those who say something well, but not necessarily to those who speak truth.
