"Act as a rational being and aim at becoming a rallying point for all those who are starved for a voice of integrity—act on your rational values, whether alone or in the midst of your enemies, or with a few of your chosen friends, or as the founder of a modest community on the frontier of mankind’s rebirth.
As there can be no causeless wealth, so there can be no causeless love or any sort of causeless emotion. An emotion is a response to a face of reality, an estimate dictated by your standards. To love is to value. The man who tells you that it is possible to value without values, to love those whom you appraise as worthless, is the man who tells you that it is possible to grow rich by consuming without producing and that paper money is as valuable as gold."
~ Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, This is John Galt Speaking
Can you identify emotions that are contradictory to reality? That set up red flags for those like myself, who know emotions stem from your image of the facts of reality. Good speaking skills are an essential tool, but only for those who speak and listen with rationality as their guide. It is one thing to be a proficient speaker, it is another that your message is based on facts, truth, not of falsehood and fooling others, with twisted metaphors.
It is the cognition of listening,
that can be a matter of life or death.
Last night I heard someone say, "that when someone says no, they mean yes?" That is the case if you live your life like a fool, who has no respect for the words you utter. That your words don't mean what they are defined as, is living a life of a traitor to yourself and others. Not someone I would respect, but I would be able to detect their bullshit. Efficient listening skills are a better commodity to acquire, than speaking skills, but both are important for sustaining life.
