What colours mean and other thoughts

Part of the success of a painting can be in the choice and particular combination of colour. The subtle nuances added to the natural pigment; the ingenuity of certain contrasts, like the palette of Cezannes 1870's paintings depicting scenes near his home in Aix.
And yet one of the traits I so often see missing in my students is reception of subtelties - and here I am referring to language style, tone, technique and also idea content.
If one of the golden rules of rhetoric is Know Your Audience, I am beginning to wonder how one can find an audience that appreciates subtitles. And not want to go home and lose themselves in diversions at the end of the day.
This problem applies in daily conversation. So often, I think about how what one says can be misconstrued. My experience in journalism showed me the violence done to words and ideas, because they can so easily be taken out of context. James Clifford writes of the modern tendency to make collages of different ideas and world views. But the collage, by default, takes words and ideas out of context. And we all know about transplanting trees and such, they do not always take to the new land. Sometimes they thrive there, sometimes they die.
If no one has time, or if they are tired, they will not ask follow-up questions, like: "What did you mean by XYZ?". Goodbye context.
If one is not curious, one will not read more about something, from different sources, to fill in the picture. Goodbye context.
If one does not have the space within to accept new information, goodbye context.
And enter: judging.
How much love and sacrifice is needed to truly attempt to get to know something. I would not say that this effort is encouraged by the shape culture has taken today. I wonder how to influence this state of affairs. Obviously, by teaching, I can attempt to broaden the minds of my students. But I will say right now how hard it is. I want to give up so often. So I hope I remember my two darling students, the nicest girls, who made an incredible effort in the second term to learn how to summarise - search for the author's meaning, main and supporting points, and rephrase it concisely. (How often do we see this skill in life?) And all I could do when they summarised was to say, very good, I am so proud of you, I hope you are proud of yourselves. Of course, in such instances, I have less opportunity to practice my socratic questionning!
And a few days ago, they thanked me for my course, saying it taught them a lot. I told them they made my day and my year. But a handful of students! Out of so many. (Who really got it.)
So, that is the audience. Those few people who are scattered about somewhere. I wonder how to find them.