The Madness of Words

 

Beware the power of words. Especially the simple words. Because they are not simple. They allow for too much misinterpretation. Fuck was once a euphemism. Then it became the worst of things to say. And not it is believed to be the sign of a creative mind. My father believed it represented an impoverished mentality. One word. Four letters.

What did you mean by using that word.

I worked as a freelance writer and from time to time still do. I became familiar with the phrase of "what did you mean to say here," used it seemed to frequently by editors. I learned to ask it of myself. I am also a reader and used that phrase on books I read. So many books and so little time so I learned to speed read. Does not allow time to ask that question often enough.

There are authors I speed read for pure enjoyment and admire that they deliver lessons to me. Just been through a binge of J.A. Jance books. Then a pre-purchased Louise Penny book popped up. I do not speed read her. And especially not her current book. I am only 32% through it. Do not hold me to my early assumptions. But it seems at this stage the villain in the book is not them but us. Having survived the pandemic (which is in itself wrong because it rages on but solved in her book) we want to be sure it does not happen again.

It is making me look at a microcosm of the written world. FaceBook. During the pandemic shutdowns social media became our worlds. And with a simple action like block or unfriend we could remake it in our image. I had already exiled all the Trumpers who didn't play well with others. Easy Peasy but January 6th proved they were all still there in their own microcosm wanting to invade our country and destroy our government. Not my world. And I was not theirs. There were catch words and titles they seemed to use as badges to define them and identify others of the same ilk. Facebook decided to use some of these words which had multiple meanings to lock up myself and some of my friends in FB detention. The algorithm may have been working correctly but the conclusion was wrong. I was commenting about the Right. Not declaring membership in the Right which I believe is wrong.

But maybe it is me that is wrong. By deleting the trumpers I do not hear their opinions. By keeping my distance from anti-vaxxers I do not hear their reasoning (if it is reason). By denouncing those who believed we should have stayed in Afghanistan am I forcing them to stay in other states in the US they occupy. By not wanting to hear what they have to say am I making them an enemy of what I have to say.  Has the 30 second sound byte eliminated the question What did you mean by that?

But even worse rather than trying to understand do we just build walls between them and us. Is the science right, we can be defined by the words we use, but the conclusion wrong. We will never understand what we refuse to give audience to.