In traditional tarot interpretations, Knights indicate a) teenagers and young adults, b) the teen-like aspects of a person, or c) travel. Here, I'd like to focus on the personality characteristics we can associate with each court card.

 

Characteristics of the Knight (fierce, action-oriented, loyal) of Swords (mind, rationality, communication) are:

• analytical

• knowledgeable

• opinionated

• idealistic, visionary (unrealistic?)

• likes to start discussions, argue

• tendency to coolness, uncaringness

• prone to arrogance, developing a sense of superiority

 

The Knight of Swords has a fierce mind and a sharp tongue. He rushes to defend his beliefs with the cool, watertight logic that suits the Swords. This attitude can be very positive. It values cold, hard, objective reason not clouded by emotion, and can therefore lead to a very honest and constructive debate. The Knight of Sword is smart and efficient in solving problems and coming up with new ideas. He also likes arguing, just for the sake of truth and exchanging ideas.

 

But it's important to remember that life is not a debate club, and the best argument doesn't always win. The Knight of Swords should know when it's no use arguing, even when he knows he has the winning argument. It's like when you're at a family celibration and your aunt says something unbelievably short-sighted and naive, and it might even have a distasteful whiff of racism about it. You just itch with desire to blow her whole argument to pieces, because that would be so easy. But you know her response is going to be peppered with logical fallacies. She's going to take offense at something you didn't say. And finally your mom, with an exasperated look on her face, will scold you for spoiling the evening. In the real world, arguments are not won solely on grounds of reason. That might not be fair or even justifiable, but that is the way people are. And maybe you did accidentally come across as a tad cold and arrogant?

 

When you do want to convince someone, a full blown attack may not be the best way to succeed. In fact, simply telling people they're wrong may only drive them deeper into their these beliefs. Consider the Backfire Effect:

 

In 2006, Brendan Nyhan and Jason Reifler at The University of Michigan and Georgia State University created fake newspaper articles about polarizing political issues. The articles were written in a way which would confirm a widespread misconception about certain ideas in American politics. As soon as a person read a fake article, researchers then handed over a true article which corrected the first. For instance, one article suggested the United States found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The next said the U.S. never found them, which was the truth. Those opposed to the war or who had strong liberal leanings tended to disagree with the original article and accept the second. Those who supported the war and leaned more toward the conservative camp tended to agree with the first article and strongly disagree with the second. These reactions shouldn’t surprise you. What should give you pause though is how conservatives felt about the correction. After reading that there were no WMDs, they reported being even more certain than before there actually were WMDs and their original beliefs were correct. (...) People on opposing sides of the political spectrum read the same articles and then the same corrections, and when new evidence was interpreted as threatening to their beliefs, they doubled down. The corrections backfired.

 

Once something is added to your collection of beliefs, you protect it from harm. You do it instinctively and unconsciously when confronted with attitude-inconsistent information. Just as confirmation bias shields you when you actively seek information, the backfire effect defends you when the information seeks you, when it blindsides you. Coming or going, you stick to your beliefs instead of questioning them. When someone tries to correct you, tries to dilute your misconceptions, it backfires and strengthens them instead. Over time, the backfire effect helps make you less skeptical of those things which allow you to continue seeing your beliefs and attitudes as true and proper.

 

Know when to argue, and when to bite your tongue or try a different approach.