Words Change—Meanings are lost

12 Oct 2021

Blog: Words Change—Meanings are lost

“Meanings are expressed in words, but it is one of the mis-fortunes of life that words tend to persist long after their meanings have departed, with the result that thoughtless men and women believe they have the reality because they have the word for it.” 

– A.W, Tozer, We Need Sanctified Thinkers-1, reprinted; The Set of the Sail, pg. 64

Nice:

Original meaning was wanton. ( Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nice. Accessed 3 Oct. 2021) Obviously this has changed a lot.

Research:

People use the word research in this sentence, “I have researched this…” but they really mean they googled it and read some stuff. Usually from the first page.

As Tozer points out above, words don’t mean what we think sometimes, neither does usage. It is one thing to google the history of “meatballs” where one can cross-reference Wikipedia and the Tableside Italian Cook Shoppe and quite another to study epidemiology to understand human group diseases, their cure, and prevention vis a vis reading an article on vaccines written by Trump’s 400-pound hacker or a Qanon blogger.

Misinformation and the Bullshit Asymmetry Principle, aka Brandolini’s Law (“The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude larger than to produce it.”). This could lead into a long discussion about the woes of modern, and social media but I will skip that. The discussion needs to lead to the self-aggrandizing misconception of the use of the word research.

In our society, where anyone can have their fifteen minutes of fame and every opinion is taken as equal to all others the idea of research has suffered. Scientists tend to have their ideas stated in the media at a third grade reading level; science education has done a poor job of informing about how studies are done, written, peer reviewed, and replicated; people want to feel they can inform themselves; manipulation by nefarious actors who use the gullibility of people for their own ends; political manipulation for their own ends; to name a few.

In the sixties the denigration of the expert began (Scientists and the Educated included) as a political tool to remove the opposition on certain issues. One could argue this began with Nixon and his obsession against the eastern establishment and his attempt to get the “blue collar” crowd to elect him in 68. Going down this road is a dangerous one when one gets to the likes of Trump/Republicanism. In the current manifestation there is not just a disregard for any standard of truth there is a maliciousness to the denigration of the expert, the scientist, and anyone that has a different opinion than Trump.

Add all together, the self-aggrandizing nature of social media, the denigration of the expert, the manipulation by a political party, and other factors and one gets the idea that googling a topic and reading some stuff will make one an expert. One of the most effective methods of advertising is using the strength of the target market’s ability to reason and then manipulating that reason. The target then “reasons” to conclude what the ad wants to sell. This way research has become a meaningless word in our society today by a large part of that society. Social media and Trumpism have convinced people they are using their own minds. The administration and Republican party have denigrated all news sources that do not state their political agenda and ideas and then told their listeners that they are making their own decisions.

Racist:

There are many words in common usage today that have become so fuzzy as to be almost meaningless (Rape and Bullying are two). “Racism” in its accusative form, “Racist”, is probably the most pervasive, and dangerous of the list.

Come to find out the word racism is quite a modern word, only recorded beginning in 1902. It won over the previous version, Racialism from the 1880’s. Of course, the idea that some humans are born superior to others has been around forever. Often this was just the idea that one society was superior (e.g., the Roman idea) due to military conquest. Or that the people themselves were superior, the Dutch, British, American idea that Western Europeans were just genetically superior (see Eugenics). Some of the British ideas of genetic superiority were enriched by the conquest idea also. Racists today have come to subterfuge instead of the blatant KKK version of the 50’s and before (The Trump era has changed this a bit–may be temporary). This subterfuge makes the change to weaponize “Racist” easier.

To the point: calling people a racist has become the accusation whenever a person of one color says anything negative, insulting, or critical to a person of another color, or even when a person does not get a job one wants if the hiring person is another color—this can extend to gender and sexual orientation as well but that is not a use of racist. “Racist” is the default response. This makes the word meaningless, yet many people have lost jobs via this accusation. When I was a kid: sticks and stone may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. Words can actually hurt in profound ways but not all negative words between people of different colors or cultures are racist.

We need to be able to disagree without this weaponized word. We need the ability to criticize and disagree without fear of this weaponized word obstructing speech or actions. Democratic society depends on the ability to disagree without accusation of some nefarious motive. The idea we should like everyone, that we have to accept everyone’s quirks, attitudes, or actions just because they are a different color (sex or gender) makes everything meaningless. One’s own culture and ideas included.

For further reading I recommend: Nine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter: Then, Now, and Forever. Book by John McWhorter

Retail Speak: Awesome, Perfect, Great….

I know that retail is a strange world of making customers feel “happy” to give their money. Related to this, the current generation of young are taught to always say positive stuff—except online where they can be extremely cruel—and that the meaning of the words is completely lost by the disingenuousness of this training. To be fair this is not their fault. They have been called great, given ribbons for participation, and scorned for thinking in win/lose dichotomies. They have struggled with the deep understanding—with few if, any words, to express it– of this disingenuous training and their actual feelings that the world is a win/lose proposition.

There is a book I read in college called Doublespeak by William Lutz. This, from the Amazon blurb on the book; “Doublespeak is the language of non-responsibility, carefully constructed to appear to communicate when in fact it doesn’t.” As I remember it, Doublespeak is addressing government and military most often or maybe it was just too obvious—”negative personnel” for dead people. Now this doublespeak has moved to retail (associates, partners, has replaced the employee) and for the current generation young, those around the age of twenty to thirty, have used words like love, hate, perfect, in such general ways that they have become meaningless.