It’s easy to see how some people conclude that we only converse about trivial issues and fail to be concerned with anything that could be considered intellectual.

Because we all have different levels of knowledge and different opinions, public venues for discourse are necessary for debate toward the most reasonable conclusions. Not only should everyone engage in debate where it is needed, but the level of discourse must be high in order for the discussion to be profitable.

Public discourse can be found in speeches, formal debates, newspaper columns and most recently, the internet. Columns in the Kentucky Kernel have a unique advantage to these other avenues of discourse. With at least partially college-educated readers up against carefully polished writings, complex ideas can be shared and argued by a large number of people.

For example, if a discussion on the importance of history education takes place in speech, it is most likely associated with political gain. That same discussion occurring in an internet thread or between two peers is unlikely to have depth or a widespread audience.

In a meticulously thought out newspaper column, the importance of history education could be broken down into reasons to be seen by a large audience. This sort of general discussion is not easy and will probably include difficult terms and abstract reasoning, but again, what better place for this than a college newspaper?

However, readability should not be totally ignored. Research has shown that more readers will read and finish easier articles, where easiness is defined by the number of syllables in words and words in sentences. So is it wrong to write about abstract topics which will decrease readership?

The answer to this must be no, for the greatness of a generation can be linked to their level of discourse. This higher level of discourse both requires education and progresses one’s education, so it is a self-promoting loop that we must choose to create.

I will do my part in presenting higher level ideas, like those on discourse presented here, and I hope that you choose to join in the effort. You might even want to respond online to future columns that have readability minimally sacrificed for depth, abstract material and careful reasoning. Without this, we get further and further away from higher level ideas which ultimately help us deal with life and its problems.