Uses and misuses of language

A discussion I've been having with a friend, about moral precepts, started me thinking about uses and misuses of oral and written language, and I decided to write a post about that. A search on the Internet brought up poetry, propaganda, advertising, and figurative language. I also thought of metaphorical language; the specialized languages of arts, crafts, sciences and services; and the formal, informal and technical languages discussed in The Silent Language by Edward T. Hall.

In the face of that fathomless ocean, I decided to go back to the topic of moral precepts, and some harmful and malicious ways they're commonly used. I have a one track mind that always goes back to ways of improving myself, and helping to improve the world, so I'll approach it from the angle of learning to avoid using moral precepts in harmful ways, and to help counteract the harmful effects of other people misusing them.

For now I'll generalize "moral precepts" to "changes I want to promote in other people's behavior," and discuss one way among others that I've been practicing, to avoid some possible harmful effects of that: before I start promoting some kind of change in other people's behavior, I work on changing my behavior in the same way.

I'm thinking now of various ways words spoken or written can influence people's behavior apart from communicating information and ideas, for example in songs, stories and poetry; and by triggering emotional reflexes associated with words and phrases. All those ways can be harmful and beneficial, just like any other ways of influencing people. My biggest problem that I'm aware of is intimidating people. I've been struggling with that for decades, and I've made some progress, but I'm perpetually disappointed with the results of my efforts.