In addressing you I feel that I am not so much speaking to the representatives of diverse States of Europe and America as to the exponents of principles and hopes that are common to us all, and without which our life on earth would be a life without horizon or prospect.
Essentially, what the most important questions we can ever ask ourselves are, "Who am I? Who are we all? What do we share, and what is our purpose here? How do we discover meaning?" Addressing these questions is the core of Inspirational Psychology.
The only way to resonate at a level that persuades is to know who you are addressing. If it's true that the Audience is the hero, you need to spend time thinking about them. Really getting to know them to the point it feels like they are a friend. May times we picture our audience as a large clump of strangers. Instead, you need to picture them as individuals standing in line to have a personal conversation with you. It's easy to persuade a friend, you need to think about your audience until you know them as a friend.
When we talk, answer questions, I'm addressing your tonal. I'm teaching you a way or a series of ways of dealing with the world.
Reducing the economic gap may be impossible without also addressing the gap in empathy.
. . . For all our alarm, it is clear that the religious right is responding to a real hunger in our society. . . a deep-seated yearning for stable values. . . When conservative Christian groups talk of failures in our educational system, the erosion of our moral standards, and the waste of young lives, they are addressing real and legitimate concerns. . . Among secularists, the aversion toward discussion of moral values, let alone religion, can reach absurd extremes.
You cannot achieve environmental security and human development without addressing the basic issues of health and nutrition.
So many artists today will talk about green this or organic that, but you know what? What we are eating, I think, is really doing a lot of bad to us. I'm not sure if I'm the guy to do it right now, because I have to clean up my house too, so to speak, but we've got to start addressing this. Too many people are getting sick today.
There's something very self-conscious about a writer who's addressing his reader. Don't do that.
