Surely you mean "the average person could escape the majority of needless wasteful tension if they were just willing to use words ... "

No, I'm sure I wasn't talking about average people, I was talking about people collectively. If I added the word "all" it would be closer to my meaning that if I had added the word "average".

But I guess I was right in my estimation about the intentionality of the signals you were giving, as you're now reinforcing them.