Language Logic

Language has been the most powerful tool to have ever existed, far surpassing fire or the wheel. It has allowed us to communicate ideas, enabling cooperation between humans — cementing us as the dominant species. It’s so powerful that it can lead to complete annihilation of the planet or the creation of new life itself. All you have to do is speak, leading to:

• The education of billions

• Riots, protests and war

• Diplomatic agreements

• Spread of new ideas

• Consolation from friends, family or even yourself

I find it almost magical that the arrangement or the switching of certain words completely changes the meaning, thereby completely altering the outcomes:

• “I almost lost everything” —> sigh of relief ; “I lost almost everything” —> anguish

• “The war is ending to bring peace” —> calmness ; “The war is bringing peace to an end” —> torment

• “I work to live” —> realistic ; “I live to work” —> sarcastic

Isn’t it powerful? Intonations and polymorphisms of words can change outcome entirely even if the semantics are the same:

• “I’m gonna kill you” —> hearty laugh in disbelief ; “I am going to kill you” —> fear, if said with enough seriousness and background

  [“I’m” changes to “I am”, “gonna” changes to “going to”]

Now, the fun bit about that example sentence is how you read the sentence out to yourself. It exposes what sarcasm feels like to you and what seriousness is. I’d presume that most people imagined the first as being fast-paced with fleeting intent and the latter being read with a slow pace and perhaps a deeper pitch than usual. My assessments may very well be false and completely different from yours, exposing an even more important fact:

Objectivity is a complete lie.

There are seldom, if any, complete objective truths in life. Ironically, ‘objectivity’ is a concept which is subjective to everyone. It tells us that everyone perceives everything in always a different way, affecting our communicability with each other. We still make communication happen with each other due to the similarities we share with our peers or generalization of what another person experiences with our own lenses and experiences.   The latter is iffy because it rarely works, it is ineffective in its purpose to share an idea — we all know of at least one person in our life who doesn’t seem to get us and the outcome is usually conflict. My best way to avoid misunderstanding someone is to listen as much as possible and then think of what has happened recently with the speaker, leading them to converse with me about this particular topic. The problem still isn’t mitigated because personal biases still exist no matter how hard we try to avoid them, and that’s where the magic of word management comes in.

Conflict is never productive when you’re trying to get a message out to someone. When all attempts at listening and understanding fail for whatever reason, manage the words you use carefully. A change in one word, even if it seems to have the same meaning, can change outcomes. A perfect example is GOPAC’s word list aptly titled “Language: A Key Mechanism of Control” (though a bit dark). I will first write a sentence with my own vocabulary and then switch it with a similar word from the list (some sentences pertaining to 90’s US Politics):

• “High taxes have caused businesses to stagnate” —> “High taxes have caused businesses to decay”

• “Current policies have weakened our military” —> “Current policies have destroyed our military”

• “Their ideas are revolutionary” —> “Their ideas are radical”

Constant repetition of these ideas can completely change the beliefs of people, how they perceive the world without them realizing that a change in the usage of words has occurred. This applies to language politics and more importantly, your mental state:

• “I’m feeling alright” —> “I’m feeling good”

• “I feel useless” —> “I think I should do something”

• “I’m so lethargic” —> “I just feel bored”

• “I have had terrible trauma” —> “I have suffered a lot”

Simply elevating something neutral to something good and something bad to something neutral greatly affects mood — the more positive you are, the less you focus on the distracting negative thoughts and feelings. Using simple euphemism is effective for the day-to-day negative statements. Actual problems do need to be solved yourself.

All which we discussed finally applies to regular conversation. How you implement my understanding of language is up to you. Language shapes our world — we wouldn’t be if it weren’t for it.

Thank you for your time.