The Impact of Words on the Conversation
June 10th 2009 11:50
These thoughts did not come in any verbal formulation. I rarely think in words at all. A thought comes, and I may try to express it in words afterward.”
~ Albert Einstein
~ Albert Einstein
In a climate obsessed with answers I felt it was appropriate to break the discussion down into words.
A tricky subject in conversation that could easily be misunderstood by the average observer or critic…
One man or woman’s words of inspiration or a rallying cry can be interpreted as a divisive instrument by another group all together.
One man or woman’s call for change on a broken system can be twisted into a mandate of divisiveness that amounts to an all out attack on the social culture of an entire group of people.
Word’s can be used to uplift and bring together the masses in hope for a better day just as easily as they could be used as weapons to demean or create fissures in misunderstanding.
An entire historical period or discussion about times before we were born can easily be broken into simple words that destroy the whole meaning of historical events.
We’ve turned into a society built around buzz words and words that sound like buzz words that evoke a response.
Buzz words of hate
Buzz words of race
Buzz words of hope
Buzz words of change
Buzz words of ignorance
Buzz words of bliss
People are losing their sanity, reputations and jobs for the simple slip of the tongue at the wrong time and the court of public opinion is the first and last stop on the road to disgrace.
Lies along with men and women who tell these lies are first filtered into categories of whether or not their working for our personal agendas before being brought to court on the charge of wrongful use of words.
Some of these people make careers out of use of simple words and are celebrated from one side of the fence but reviled by the other.
Forgiveness is both an easy and hard thing to come by in our society when charged and the wheels of judgment will always continue to spin no matter what the final outcome may be.
Race, gender, nationality, religion, sexual orientation and political affiliation are a few of the categories that go into the determination of who is allowed to say these words and whom they are allowed to direct them to.
A man or woman of a certain political affiliation, race or gender can stand up and speak the plain truth about racism or sexism coming from both sides of the aisle and is considered a brilliant orator for fearlessly standing up and saying what needs to be said.
All the while another person from an opposite political affiliation, race or gender who stands up and reads this very same speech verbatim would be considered a misogynist or racist all because of the factors of time, place, audience and messenger.
The problems with the way words are interpreted go deeper than the words themselves.
When we truly weigh all of the societal factors behind simple words that sometimes get twisted into dramatic conversation we have to give ourselves a chance to reach the point of understanding.
When a Latina woman talks about her story of clawing her way to the top of a profession dominated by people of different social class, race and gender by making reference to her experience being unique to that of someone who grew up on the other side of the fence we can not fault her for bringing the subject of our differences as Americans along the lines of social class, race and gender to the forefront.
The problem with these statements doesn’t revolve around the fact that she said these words, how she structured them, nor is it about an overt tone of racism but is rather with the piranha like atmosphere our hard and fast society of judgment has created to latch onto simple words instead of having a conversation.
The majority of problems that exist in today’s society are not from an underground race war that separates the Latino community from the African American Community or Anglo Saxon community from the rest of America.
Our problems come from the use of the sound byte or single words in a speech to build an entire argument.
Instead of asking questions pertaining to what a person really meant in the use of words or looking over their entire career; we are quick to demonize, character assassinate and destroy if the person we’re judging is not of the same political, racial, gender, sexual orientation or religious category that we carry within our personal framework.
Much like the beginning of The Cold War when the world believed in the theory that the country who ultimately had the most nuclear weapons would rule the world…
There will come a point and time for us to figure out the theory of Mutual Assured Mass Destruction and apply it to our personal lives.
Every time one group or individual builds up a media campaign to destroy another in a political election or confirmation hearing the pendulum is waiting to swing back in a karma wave.
The funny thing about this form of karma is within the fact that all sides share equal blame for centuries of slash and burn politics that have victimized men and women who served our country.
Some of these victims had it coming but others played the game of live by sword and ultimately found themselves on the wrong end of the blade.
So much has been won and lost because of words and this will be the same story through the end of time.
The key in all of this is to watch your words because in a technological age they can and will always be used for or against you.
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