To capitalize on the potential support we can give one another, we will need to make certain changes in our habits.

For example, in our interpersonal, real-world talk to one another about public affairs, we have developed a habit of flatly telling one another, “Nixon did this” or “Clinton did that,” when we are really only saying what we have surmised from third-hand news accounts that offered no direct proof, and often only suggested what the public figure may have done.

At the same time, in contrast to the overconfident presumption of our pronouncements on events about which we have no real knowledge, we are curiously shy about our own personal experiences, and the original insights and opinions we have derived from them. To the extent that we express our opinions to one another on social matters at all, we seem to be much more confident wrapping ourselves in viewpoints that we have picked up from media celebrities in newspaper columns or talk shows or the like.

If we have anything at all to add to the public discourse, it is surely not a mere recitation of some media celebrity’s Name Brand Opinion, or a clumsy oversimplification of a news event with which most people are already familiar. By any sensible measure, our own unique and personal observations are what we really have to say.

Why can’t we manage to share these with one another more?