Two Types of Communicators

Generally speaking, I see two main categories of communicators. This is true among anarchists/voluntaryists, as well as all sorts of other types of people and fields of thought.

1) The first type has the goal of sharing information and understanding with others. They try, with varying degrees of success, to convey to others what they know or believe. Their goal, even if subconsciously, is to lift the other person up to the same level of understanding, so that the two end up as equals in that area of thought.

2) Then there are those who communicate with the intention of impressing others, of trying to make others view them as intelligent and informed. People who do this are trying to create followers and adherents, who then look to them for truth and understanding. They are trying to create intellectual dependency.

Given my experiences over the past twenty years, I can usually tell very quickly which category someone fits in. If someone is spouting off trivialities and random bits of information, using unnecessarily complex terminology, hinting or implying that he is so very informed and enlightened, without bothering to actually explain things in terms simple and clear enough to help others understand, then such people probably aren’t worth your attention. And that is true even if they really do understand some true and important things. Because if their goal is to have others feel intellectually inferior and subservient to themselves, they will invariably be crappy teachers.

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Larken Rose is an anarchist author best known for challenging the IRS to answer questions about the federal tax liability of citizens, and being put in prison with no questions answered. He is the author of The Most Dangerous Superstition.