Thirty or forty years ago, it might have been important carefully to expound one's ideology, to try to win the hearts of the public through rational or passionate discourse. However, in our own day and age, most people feel themselves drowning in verbiage. As a result, words have lost much of their power to inspire or even outrage. A public overwhelmed by politicians who spout beautiful sentiments while involved in the most crass chicanery—that public has grown weary and cynical, and is inured to the noble sentiments that we might express on paper. Minds and hearts are turned, nowadays, more by deed than by word.
Today Rav Aharon Kotler, z"l would almost certainly not accept an invitation to speak to a conference of the Rabbinical Council of America, which he did agree to address forty years ago. But if he declined to address that group today, would he be missing a wonderful opportunity to influence hearts and minds? It is well known, for example, that Rav Aharon Kotler was opposed to the erection of an eruv in major cities. Were he to present this view to an RCA Convention, is there the slightest chance that he would be able to change the thinking of the members or the leadership?
Are we not all hardened in our positions? Are we living in a society where words can sway us from our chosen paths? Would Rav J. B. Soloveitchik, with all his vast erudition, be able to change the thinking of Satmar chasidim regarding the State of Israel? Thus, declining to address an assembly of the RCA would not represent a breakdown in tolerance between groups, but rather a realistic evaluation that, generally, people are set in their ways and are not anxious to make sweeping changes in their thinking. We live with the tacit motto, "Don't confuse me with the facts, I've already made up my mind".
[Rabbi Albert Cohen, Tradition Summer '88 p. 52]
