Pure truth cannot be assimilated by the crowd it must be communicated by contagion.

— Henri-Frédéric Amiel

REFLECTION

WHAT THIS MEANS

Anything difficult and true rarely spreads by announcement. Groups take it up the way they take up a manner of speaking, through proximity to a few people who already live by it, and through slow copying that nobody quite decides on. Argument has its place, but the transmission is mostly done by example.

If you want something you believe to travel, stop measuring how well you explained it and start noticing whether anybody near you has begun doing it. Live one part of it visibly and without pressing it on people. That is slower than a speech, and it is the route most convictions actually take.

A QUESTION TO SIT WITH

Who changed your mind by example rather than by argument?

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