5 Comments
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Hollis Robbins's avatar

Excellent -- I love everything about this.

David Valerio's avatar

Glad you enjoyed the piece!

lucille robbins's avatar

Would not the problem be solved by using the passive voice ? “ This must be done if humanity is to survive”. Just change the grammar.

David Valerio's avatar

Provided that the person making that statement explains why their claim should be trusted, then I think this approach would be fine. Shifting to the passive in this way should require the writer to consider the source for the statement in a way that doesn’t assume the reader agrees.

lucille robbins's avatar

As always, “ Just the facts, Ma’am “ applies . Knowing the facts is always the hard part.