The Word
Have you ever thought about the power of the word? Oh yes, the words are very powerful, we use them all the time, and everything that we say, we write... we think, depends on it. Well, not everything, we can "talk" without words (non-verbal language), "write" without words (draw), and think without words, if we say that imagine is thinking, in short, suppress audition and only use vision, however, the word is absolutely essential.
We depend on it to know, we depend on it to be conscious, we depend on it to be self-conscious. Have not you noticed? Maybe it's time to do it.
Because we say that someone knows when they can give verbal evidence of such knowledge, and this is true in all fields, including art or cooking, which involve sight and taste. When a person does something and cannot verbally explain the reason why he did it, we say it is irrational, although there is indeed a reason for such action. And when a person handles a concept that is true, however true this thing is, it will seem ignorant if it does not know how to use the right words to express it, because certainly many problems and much discord have been created by the misuse of this instrument.
Because the word is an instrument, never be confused with this, the word and the concept are two different. The word is not the thing, neither the object or the idea that one seeks to express with such, the word is only an instrument to transmit the message. You would be surprised to see how many discussions really take place between two people who, really agree, but have a semantic problem. It happens all the time, if you look closely.
But without deviating, knowledge is born of the word, we are aware of things through the word. If we perceive something, anything, be it an object or an idea, and we don't put a name on it, if we don't assign a word to it, this thing as quickly as we stop perceiving it is forgotten, and finally, we ignore it. After all, can you remember something you never named in any way?
I was trying the other day to remember some faces and I was amazed to realize that, although I can remember the faces of people, I cannot remember his nose alone, neither his mouth, his eyes, etc. In fact, I can only remember the eyes of the people I saw and I assigned them a verbal description, saying they are blue or green, or almond shaped, and the noses that I said are concave or convex, large or small, aquiline, roman or any other. But of the people that I did not make any description of his face (almost all, in fact), I cannot remember any specific part, and only the face as a whole.
And this does not only happen with faces, of course, it happens with anything, even with ourselves. There are behaviors that we have, habits or customs, even fillers when speaking, that we don't perceive, but then, when someone or we mention them, we become aware of this obvious thing that we have witnessed for so long, but that we somehow ignore, simply for not expressing it verbally. Before it was not there, it did not exist, it was nothing, but now when you mention it, it's real, it was always there, it's everything.
On the other hand, when we want to ignore something we remain silent, we avoid making any judgment, without using words, we seek in some way to forget such a thing and not make ourselves aware of it.
The word then has an enormous power, that of indelibly recording a perception in our consciousness. If this perception is true or false, that will depend on the speed with which we make our judgments, it will be up to us to decide if what we want to keep in us is one or the other, but even more, it will depend on us to carefully choose the words with which we refer among ourselves, when thinking, for they make all the difference.
"The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their proper name."
Chinese proverb.
Oh, and before I forget, the power of the message is greater than that of the word, and if it is necessary to use the wrong words to convey the right message, so be it, as it is often necessary to suppress the word completely and keep silence, so as not to transmit any message, but so that the person who already knows the message appreciates it again and without tumult.
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These days, people are becoming more clever. Instead of ignoring situations that are uncomfortable or inconvenient, people are now turning to abusing words and their meaning. That way they are able to only deceive themselves but to also deceive others.
This is arguably the worst form of abuse. Abuse of words is an abuse of power. The power to control our perceptions, and our thoughts.
We should not take this lightly. In an age devoid of blood and death, abuse of words has become the new standard for modern warfare.
Thank you for this post, I think I have found a new topic to write about.
Surely, and the abuse of the word is part of the psychological subversion that is carried out in the West.
I'm glad that what I wrote has been useful, thanks to you!
Such a great point. We should remind ourselves more often about this:
But of course. I saw and smelled flowers and plants whose names I didn't know, and the memory of a certain tree whose mighty crown impressed me wasn't there to remember its name. When I thought of the tree, I did not think of "tree". And even if I did, the name had no relevance, because I saw the tree as a whole in front of me, as a figure, as touched by the wind and rooted in the earth. Now all these are not words that were formulated by me in my mind during the experience and I use them for the sake of understanding.
When I look up into the sky, I do not see clouds, but I experience a sensation. The naming, as you say, is only there to express our feelings and the information we want to share with others.
If we really contemplate a little more deeply about the naming of things, the name is often even obstructive to an object, because it limits and excludes countless alternatives. Therefore, it is not important for the introspection what words we have for it, only for the communication to the outside.
Once I noticed this when we went for a walk with the children and immediately when they saw something, they called it by its name, but I felt that they were not really interested in what it really was, but only that they quickly knew its name, like in a vocabulary test.
On the other hand, I know from Buddhism the method that when you feel a feeling of anger, and you give that feeling an inner name or say to yourself, "Aha, I feel anger. I accept that I feel that way." And: "It is human to get angry. I look at it now and I think I understand this anger." Then through this method the power is already taken away from the anger.
Then very conscious name giving is productive in such a way that it helps us with arousal and anger in interactions with others.
In recent times you give your readers shorter bon bons to digest. It's lovely but I also like your longer pieces a lot.
Hello appreciated @vieira.
The word can be a weapon.
The word can heal too.
The vow of silence that some monks usually practice is admirable. Get rid of the word to pretend to achieve enlightenment.
Thanks for this valuable work.
PD:
I didn't hear from you so I decided to check out your profile to see if you're still active. Im glad to know that you're around :)
Unfortunately, I can not give you an upvote at this moment . I only now realized that I have committed a lot without checking my voting power. And it was reduced to 50%. Next time :)
All the best, Piotr
There is no problem, thanks for stopping by and leave your thoughts.
Regards!
Language is a powerful tool that circumscribes reality, defines identity, and qualifies thought. Certain concepts are more difficult to express in one language verses another. The Chinese difficulty in expressing negative hypothetical led to their sociocultural values being more pragmatic, rather than principled. The ease of Anglophone to express the concept of profit resulted in their society becoming more contractual and mercantile. The Germanic grammatical idiosyncracies shaped their socioculture to be more systematic and methodical.
The first act of Qin Shi Huang was to "reform" and unify language, in order to create a new sociocultural norm divorced from the Zhou era. The humanists, and later Marxists, war centers around redefining words, and thus concepts. 2000 years after Qin unification, another emperor, Mao, changed the language standards to redefine his empire away from traditional China. In the West, Marxists work unceasingly to redefine words, erase concepts, and redifine the dominant sociocultural matrix.
He who can define propriety of words, defines propriety of thought, and ultimately defines his society.
You're right. Although we must not forget that people create languages, and their exchange is reciprocal, just as language changes thought, thought changes language.
Saludos amigo vieira, te escribo para invitarte unirte a un blog llamado whaleshares, es un blog que tiene mejor sistema de ganancia, cualquier duda puedes escribirme al discord, creeme es una mejor oportunidad aunque desde luego primero hay que esforzarnos para luego tener un buen fruto, pero el sistema ahi vale la pena, busqueme como @ljmm#9391
Gracias por la invitación. Ya he escuchado un poco al respecto, seguramente te avisaré si decido echarle un vistazo. Saludos.
Como no amigo, espero lo considere, aportarias muy bien a ese blog como lo has hecho aqui, allá valoraran tus conocimientos