Language in thought and cancel culture
We are experiencing an amazing, if predictable, series of events in our use of language and visual expression. Most of the objections to specific words, narratives and visual messages come from a lack of knowledge.
Words spoken or on a page are parts of a human symbolic process. To compress millennia of history, humans started communicating with grunts, yelps, howls, etc. Gradually, the sounds took on meaning for nearby hearers. Here’s food. Look out. I feel happy or sad.
These sounds later became marks on stone, papyrus, paper, cloth and so on. Cultures developed around specific patterns of characters. This evolved to ink and paper and today to the arrangement of millions of pixels on a screen. We call this language.
If we examine the science of Alfred Korzybski and S.I. Hayakawa, we learn that one must be taught to interpret this dazzling array of shapes, alphabets, sounds and images. In other words, the word spoken, the word on the page, the artistic image or the arrangement of pixels has no meaning unless the person hearing, reading or viewing injects meaning based on personal interpretation.
Thus, if one sees racism/sexism/jingoism/etc. in an inert pattern of ink or electronic dots on a page, that quality comes from within the person. Korzybski emphasized that we never know fully the world outside our skin. We experience the world through sensory input and internalize information that is filtered through our past experience and preparation. Knowledge is the result of processing nerve impulses within our bodies.
Human culture always changes. What does not change is our ability to use the symbolic process to set us free of time and place, either for good or for evil.
WILLIAM BOGGS Harrisville to storm the Capitol as a way to fight his ideological foes: to “get rid of ’em all,” as he so “eloquently” requested. Who would put inciting another murderous insurrection beyond him? Forty-three Republican U.S. senators were not so sufficiently troubled by what he did on Jan. 6 as to hold him accountable by voting to convict in his second impeachment trial.
Ironically, the convention theme was “America Uncanceled,” this as it attempts to “cancel,” censure and banish from the party those who dare to challenge Donald Trump. It is precisely the type of grand hypocrisy that we have come to expect of today’s Republican Party, which has been twisted like a pretzel and broken into two.
OREN SPIEGLER Peters
Thanking maskers
Thank you to “the maskers” — the people wearing masks during this pandemic. They remind me of those who have to wear masks in their line of work: health care professionals, superheroes, etc.
I’m not a fan of wearing “the mask.” It’s a pain in the … face! Wearing a mask while working a 10-hour day or even shopping for an hour — not fun.
I’ve been wearing clothes and shoes for years, including hats, scarves, gloves. But it feels like my face is the most unnatural part of the body to cover up.
Some masks are actually beautiful — the colors, images. I haven’t bought any fancy ones because I pray this will end soon and I will never have to do this again!
We were initially advised not to wear a mask, then to wear one and now are told to perhaps wear more than one. This can be confusing, frustrating, maddening. I think the rules change as we learn more. And I’m trusting those with the experience and titles to guide us. Time will tell if we did the right thing.
Some COVID-19 patients die from ARDS, adult respiratory distress syndrome. There is no cure.
My father, Nick, died of ARDS 28 years ago. His loss is still felt today. It wasn’t pleasant for him to be on a ventilator — nor for me to watch him on a ventilator.
Due to COVID-19, a family member was hospitalized (frightening) and a friend succumbed to the disease (heartbreaking).
So, thank you to all who are being inconvenienced and incensed with having to “mask up.” I believe your kind sacrifice is helping others: people you know and love, and people you have never met. God bless you. I look forward to seeing your faces again soon!
MARIA HNARAKIS
Oakdale