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Nothing to Say
Having nothing to say is an interesting phenomenon. It's a sensation I'm rather familiar with, being a very taciturn sort myself. Even so, it's not something I've really thought about much before, so I'm not sure I understand it well. What's really happening when people seem to have nothing to say? It can't be strictly true, can it? People are always thinking, so my guess is that people always have something to say. Whether or not they think they have something to say, however, must be a function of whether or not they judge their thoughts to be worth saying. This is a subjective decision, of course, influenced by all kinds of variables: relevancy, quality, audience, interest, concern for consequences. And many of these variables are subjective factors themselves. Having nothing to say, then, isn't really a condition. It's a judgment, a decree, a statement of will. To announce "I have nothing to say" is, quite simply, to resolve so.
I wonder how often this resolution is conscious, and how often not? Certainly people think about what to say on many occasions, but not always. Some people blither on endlessly without once pausing to consider whether they need or ought to say what they do, and others lock away every thought without even being struck by the notion that certain ideas might be voiced. These people aren't making conscious decisions. They've just fallen into habit, I suppose, and so formed an automated say-it-or-not policy after years of psychological conditioning. So this is a resolution made consciously and unconsciously, every day perhaps. There are always people talking and always people not talking, and at every moment each of these could be doing the opposite. What triggers one to do one thing and one to do another? Do the people who talk the most really have the most to say? Or is it rather the ones who talk least whose minds most teem with thoughts squirming to be let go? I've no idea. I have nothing to say.
2 Replies to "Nothing to Say":
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Eric wrote:13 January 2009 — 11:32 am
I might have to disagree with people always having something to say. There have been moments when I can just stare at a spot and not even think at all, then I would shake my head and wonder what kind of trance I put myself in. During a conversation would be harder though, unless one were not paying attention at all, then he or she would be in that trance state. I believe having nothing to say or a lot to say is a habit based on how other people have judged what one has said. As one may have noticed, kids may say things that are not proper at all since they have not been conditioned by other people to think about what they say first. Quick learners have a knack for saying just the right thing while other who are not so quick get older while still not thinking about what they say. I think I might be in the middle somewhere, but more towards the latter. People judge what one says and as the mind gets conditioned by the social world, one judges what he or she will say based on what others have already judged. The people that one is around might not even judge “correctly” what is relevant or not; this is where we get the fool who talks a lot because he or she talked with other fools who thought what he or she said was important, or the genius who talked to fools, but is quieted by them as they deemed his words unimportant. This reminds me of an Albert Einstein quote: “Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocre minds. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence and fulfills the duty to express the results of his thoughts in clear form.” It is amazing how society conditions one’s mind, almost ensnares it.
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Harry Truman wrote:13 January 2009 — 3:24 pm
I think my problem is saying things when nothing needs to be said. Small talk in general. I’ve wasted a lot of time talking about irrelevant, pointless things just to be polite, so I choose my words wisely, which makes me not talk as much as other people.