This philosopher from the 1950's predicted image boards and the Internet:
"In the heat of battle, your own ego quietly steps onto the stage. No longer is it truth meeting ignorance, it is mask confronting mask, each insisting 'I am right'. But the louder the masks shout, the less anyone truly hears.
"What began as a gift of clarity turns into a performance of pride. You wanted to offer light, but soon you were defending yourself, and so is the other. Thus the dance begins not a dance of wisdom, but of egos circling each other, terrified of being unmasked.
"The cost of this quarrel is not in words wasted, but in peace surrendered. You hand over your calm, your clarity, your joy, and in the end both look equally absurd!"
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"Truth can't be forced into unready soil.
"The kindest act may be to speak it once, and then let it be.
"For if their heart is not yet in season, no argument will make it ripen faster.
"People would rather cling to their rags, than be stripped of their certainty.
"We are not only afraid of being wrong, we are afraid of looking wrong. Afraid of appearing foolish, of being laughed at, of being seen as less clever than we hoped.
"Yet notice this curious twist. Resistance is itself a sign that the seed has touched fertile ground. If it had not struck the ego, it would pass by unnoticed. The very discomfort proves [truth's] potency."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRojzE60XfY
