“Language exerts hidden power, like the moon on the tides.” –Rita Mae Brown
Poetry especially could have a “hidden” power. But just like the moon, we know how it works. It all starts with gravity.
“The limits of my language means the limits of my world.” Ludwig Wittgenstein
If I have no name for snow, does that mean it doesn’t exist? Of course not. But if I have no word for freedom, that could be a problem. Although, the word freedom has multiple meanings in different contexts for different people.
The language we use certainly does affect the way we think.
Everything from neuroscience to linguistics points to this. Language affects our perception of the world, not the world itself.
Philosophically, we could argue that our perception IS the world, but that’s another debate.
When our Secretary of Education has no background in education,
when our Federal Communications Commission wants to get rid of net neutrality ,
when the term for lying becomes alternative fact,
is it time to get scared?
Before I decide we are truly living an Orwellian nightmare, I have to think about …thought. Thought and language.
Words shape thought.
Watch this amazing talk on sexual violence and language (or, if you are pressed for time, scroll to 2:35 for his sentence structure example from Julia Penelope).
Language matters.
“For a long time, the idea that language might shape thought was considered at best untestable and more often simply wrong. What we have learned [however] is that people who speak different languages do indeed think differently … Appreciating its role in constructing our mental lives brings us one step closer to understanding the very nature of humanity.” -Boroditsky from EDGE (an amazingly fabulous website).
What language are we speaking? That’s it’s okay for a man to grab a woman’s pussy? Our children are listening.
“New brain research by USC scientists shows that reading stories is a universal experience that may result in people feeling greater empathy for each other, regardless of cultural origins and differences.” (“Something universal occurs in the brain when it processes stories, regardless of language” Science Daily)
empathy: the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.
“The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words.” –Philip K. Dick
Those who speak and write and make art have the power. For now.