Main news for 30 December 2015

In every age a person has been marked by the desire to argue. Of course, in some people this desire is expressed more vividly, in others it turns out to be less noticeable, but fallen man is an arguer by nature: in the overwhelming majority of cases, argument is still not a simple exchange of opinions or a search for truth, but a desire to assert oneself, and unlike many other ways of self-assertion, under very respectable pretexts, so that this kind of self-assertion is often not perceived as something blameworthy even by those who would certainly condemn the same self-assertion in any other form. Besides, argument allows one to shine with intellect, wit, eloquence, and many other qualities whose display flatters self-love. But if truth is born in argument, alas, it is far from always. Of course, in the ideal case, when those arguing argue without any desire to boast or assert themselves at the expense of the opponent, they really can come to some truth. But in fallen humanity, unfortunately, the ideal argument is the same purely theoretical model of reality as, for example, an ideal gas is in physics: in real life such arguments are just as impossible as an ideal gas is impossible in nature. At best one can speak only of a predominance in those arguing of the desire to find truth over the desire for self-assertion. But even such predominance is found, alas, not nearly as often as it may appear. In every other case argument really loses meaning. Even Jesus Himself did not try to argue with those who entered into argument solely in order to outargue their interlocutor: any arguments are useless here. More than that, such argument can bring harm to those arguing instead of benefit. When matters reach the struggle of self-loves and rivalry in self-assertion, the commandments of God, as many centuries of experience show, are easily and quickly forgotten by those arguing, and they usually remember them only when it is already too late. To enter into such arguments means to encourage them, and this is hardly something a person called to witness to the Kingdom should do. Here the well-known saying about speech being silver and silence being golden finds its justification.