Murphy’s subtle skills

Re: Letters, July 25

Erica Rzepecki and Fraser Petrick objected to the content and form of Rex Murphy’s column (We’re All Doomed), decrying what it didn’t have, and what it had.

Rzepecki wrote that Murphy didn’t refute the climate claims of author John Scranton. Sadly, she missed the point, and descended into error herself.

First of all, the column wasn’t about climate: it was about the tactic of fearmongering and how our PM has embraced it environmentally and now applies it as a tactic to smear his political opposition.

Furthermore, Rzepecki references “the state of our environment its marked decline in recent decades.” Truth is, our environment hasn’t deteriorated. Our air, water and land are cleaner than they were 40 years ago.

Petrick wants his columnist to offer spare and lean prose, to avoid clever phrases and ornate witticisms. Communication thus has to be scientific, just the facts, please. Readers aren’t to have art with their argument. But it is in the fine turn of phrase that Murphy succeeds.

He means to inform us, and to induce deeper thought by delighting us.

The alternative proposed by Petrick dehumanizes writing, and turns the columnist (and his readers) into Hal, the computer from 2001 A Space Odyssey. Murphy, keep using the stiletto!