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Control language, control society, control reality. It was Romanian philosopher Emil Cioran who wrote in his book Anathemas and Admirations, “One does not inhabit a country; one inhabits a language. That is our country, our fatherland -- and no other.” This idea can be tied into the principles of linguistic relativity, a set of theories in which the structure of language is capable of influencing not only the foundations of society, but also the cognitive process of the speaker, thus shaping one’s world view akin to that of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave (Boroditsky, 2003). Whether against an enemy or its own citizens, in the right hands, language is the most powerful weapon of any post-industrialized civilization and looking back towards …show more content…
However, we seem to believe that the contemporary weaponization of language is equivalent to a thermonuclear warhead along the likes of Adolf Hitler, or Martin Luther King Jr. directly influencing the masses through powerful speeches, when in fact, it is actually a biological weapon, slowly spreading famine and pestilence under the noses of those who have misdirected their shields. We are manipulated, not by the charisma of fascists and revolutionaries, but by the euphemisms, jargon, and inflated words of bureaucrats, salesmen, and our own friends and family. As a society of supposed free-thinkers, we must recognize the insidious manipulation of language in order look past the hidden truths and concealed realities that are infecting and destroying the function of language capable of shaping the foundations of …show more content…
It essentially attempts to amend the societal divide caused as a result of controlled language, by seeking to control language. The most powerful way to utilize language as a weapon is to prevent the use of language all together. Censorship. In a country with its foundations rooted in the principles of freedom against tyranny, in an age where an individual thought or idea can spread across the world within seconds, it is clear that manipulating language through overt and conspicuous means, such as fear and authoritarian censorship, simply will not work on a large scale in this modern century. What does work however, is manipulating average citizens into instilling social control onto one-another. The government is not responsible for instilling political correctness, but rather, it is a societal norm practiced by the young men and women of our country, the ones that will shape the future of our civilization. But if the government is a democracy where power is in the hands of the people, then the power to control through language simply shifts back into the palm of the government. However, those in power need not to attempt to force the control of language, because we as a society have already allowed it to
Control language, control society, control reality. It was Romanian philosopher Emil Cioran who wrote in his book Anathemas and Admirations, “One does not inhabit a country; one inhabits a language. That is our country, our fatherland -- and no other.” This idea can be tied into the principles of linguistic relativity, a set of theories in which the structure of language is capable of influencing not only the foundations of society, but also the cognitive process of the speaker, thus shaping one’s world view akin to that of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave (Boroditsky, 2003). Whether against an enemy or its own citizens, in the right hands, language is the most powerful weapon of any post-industrialized civilization and looking back towards …show more content…
However, we seem to believe that the contemporary weaponization of language is equivalent to a thermonuclear warhead along the likes of Adolf Hitler, or Martin Luther King Jr. directly influencing the masses through powerful speeches, when in fact, it is actually a biological weapon, slowly spreading famine and pestilence under the noses of those who have misdirected their shields. We are manipulated, not by the charisma of fascists and revolutionaries, but by the euphemisms, jargon, and inflated words of bureaucrats, salesmen, and our own friends and family. As a society of supposed free-thinkers, we must recognize the insidious manipulation of language in order look past the hidden truths and concealed realities that are infecting and destroying the function of language capable of shaping the foundations of …show more content…
It essentially attempts to amend the societal divide caused as a result of controlled language, by seeking to control language. The most powerful way to utilize language as a weapon is to prevent the use of language all together. Censorship. In a country with its foundations rooted in the principles of freedom against tyranny, in an age where an individual thought or idea can spread across the world within seconds, it is clear that manipulating language through overt and conspicuous means, such as fear and authoritarian censorship, simply will not work on a large scale in this modern century. What does work however, is manipulating average citizens into instilling social control onto one-another. The government is not responsible for instilling political correctness, but rather, it is a societal norm practiced by the young men and women of our country, the ones that will shape the future of our civilization. But if the government is a democracy where power is in the hands of the people, then the power to control through language simply shifts back into the palm of the government. However, those in power need not to attempt to force the control of language, because we as a society have already allowed it to