Anybody Can Say Anything

 James 3

1

Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.

2

We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check.

3

When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal.

4

Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go.

5

Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark.

6

The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

7

All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man,

8

but no man can tame the tongue.

➢➢➢Assertion:  

An assertion is a declaration that's made emphatically, especially as part of an argument or as if it's to be understood as a statement of fact. https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/assertion

When a person knows little or nothing about a subject, a person such as a child, for example, it is easy to present a set of data to that person that causes belief to occur in the hearer.  A world of media, politics, gossip, entertainment, scholarship and all, depend on this phenomenon.  Surely there is an official designation for this.  I don't know it.

I might call it First Heard is Truth.  I have watched this happen in myself and in others.  We think we know a thing because we heard about it first somehow and that is how our minds work.  I have learned to be watchful of the furniture in my own mind.  A lot of it is secondhand information.  This is unavoidable.  It's learning after all. But, wow, we need to watch what we feed our heads.  

In my fairly long life, so far, I have noticed a lot of speech and print that is nothing but unwarranted assertion.  It's based on nothing but a loud mouth and persistence. It is a tool to achieve a result.  A result that involves convinced and agreeable hearers.

The loud mouth is where the unruly tongue lives.  Both out in the wild and here in our own speech.  I know that my own speech has been typically human, not the worst, but certainly not blameless.

In part, this world is ruled by the father of lies.  We really can hold this old liar in derision.  Laugh at his lies when you spot one.  Mere assertion just doesn't cut it.