"This struggle has been called a clash of civilizations. In truth, it is a struggle for civilization." - GW Bush, Sept 11, 2006

On the thread about the speech, Linz correctly highlighted this line from Bush's speech. It turns on its head the "clash of civilizations" phrase we've heard endlessly to describe the West's battle with fundamentalist Islam or with the anti-western groups. It denies the idea that what we are opposing -is- a civilization. It emphasizes how high the stakes are if terror and mass destruction cannot be stopped in an advanced technological society. And it does all this in 17 words.

Most people who have a lot of ideas, a lot to say, tend to be logorrheic gasbags. They don't know how to boil something down. So people tune them out or completely ignore what they have to say. It's one reason Objectivists without Rand's writing skills are ineffective.

However, you don't have to be as elegant or aphoristic as a paid speechwriter. Key to not just effective communication, but to thinking -- even within your own mind, is cutting, simplifying, essentializing.

[That's why I deleted the other ten thousand words from this post.]