Starting high brow this issue... Voltaire said "Judge of a man by his questions, rather than by his answers". In most cases I would totally agree with this statement, though am concerned about the lack of the use 'We' in many conversational 'answers. Maybe we live in a more selfish society now, or many feel alienated from their Communities, Workplaces, families etc., but there is a decided lack of the use of the word 'We'. Sometimes 'how' you answer a question can be very telling about your attitude and personality...

A good example, at school, the band won state championships and when asked at home, "What happened at school today?", you answered, 'We' won the state championships. You were not even in the band and couldn't hold a tune, but you didn't name specifically, it was 'We', a certain pride and feeling of being part of the school you belonged to, hence you shared in the success.

I have been watching and listening to our esteemed Prime Minister for years. (Before anyone jumps up & down and accuses me of political bias, I don't vote labor and this is not a political beat-up). As the years have gone on, the use of the term 'We' has been replaced more often with 'I'. This to me is a concern, he is not the only politician to do so, though obviously in the public eye more than most and therefore more obvious. Call me naive but I believe in democracy, I believe that 'our' elected representatives, should do just that, 'represent us'. Therefore when I hear the likes of Mr Howard saying "I don't want to do this or that...", I get extremely concerned as my first thought is, ummm but what do "we" collectively as a nation want & think, and shouldn't the 'we' be a higher priority, not the 'I'? Semantics maybe, though consistently used, concerning...

When working for a large theme park years ago, it seemed that the best employees and managers always said 'We'. It was obviously not our company, we were paid to be there, but if questioned at work, the answer tended to be, "Oh, 'we' recently put in a new ride called..." Maybe the feeling of being a part of something larger made them more conscientious, I don't know, just know the workplace ethics that resulted from this 'we' attitude, the 'I' person, or the employee who removed themselves from the group and answered the same question with "The Company..." tended to clock off as early, have little initiative, and no pride in workplace achievement.

My thought to you this issue is to think about how telling the use of the words 'I' and 'We' can be? I don't know about you, but I really do like to think that I belong to my family, my workplace, my community, my State, and my country, so will be keeping the 'Royal We' in my conversations, and hope to hear it more in others...

Best Wishes, Noely, Community Site Co-ordinator