Because words matter.
Words matter. Words matter, because words create consequences.
In our culture there are some words people use to scare each other. There are some words people use to disrupt the flow of a conversation in progress. There are some words people use to inhibit thoughtful exploration and to inhibit mature, engaged dialog.
In our culture, many […]
Occasionally I encounter people who dismiss my interest in frame language by saying something like, “Oh, that’s just rhetoric. The Greeks and Romans invented that stuff centuries ago.”
To me that seems accurate, but also incomplete and insufficient to dismiss current work in the fields of rhetoric, frames, and persuasive language. I find it […]
Debate is bad.
Debate is often bad.
Debate is often counterproductive.
Many debates are counterproductive.
Many debates seem counterproductive to me.
It seems to me that debate often brings out the worst in people.
I find this consequence of debate frustrating, sad, distracting, and counterproductive.
To be continued … See also: e-prime
If you go to the online contact form for U.S. Congressman Mike Pence, the representative from the 6th District of Indiana, you’ll notice the list of prefixes that are available to you as you enter your contact information:
Mr.
Ms.
Miss.
Mrs.
Mr. and Mrs.
Dr.
Dr. and Mrs.
The Reverend
Father
The Reverend and Mrs.
Apparently, Congressman Pence does not believe in the following career/family […]
“In order to understand what another person is saying, you must assume that it is true and try to imagine what it could be true of.”
- George Miller
“The misuse of language induces evil in the soul.”
- Socrates
Words matter. Words have consequences. Words create outcomes.
The Georgia Dept. of Transportation removed 488 small towns from its 2006 state highway map. In its attempt to explain this deletion the Georgia DOT’s statement to CNN describes many of those towns as “placeholders“. CNN notes the towns generally comprise “fewer than 2,500 people”.
Attention, you 2500 persons: You may have thought […]
Author and playwright Robert Anton Wilson writes about Understanding E-Prime, the notion of abolishing all forms of the verb “to be”. It has some interesting thoughts on how “semantic hygiene” can lead to a better life:
To understand E-Prime, consider the human brain as a computer…The wrong software guarantees wrong answers. Conversely, finding the right […]
You read it here first. (Well, unless you read it at Slowly She Turned, but I wrote it there first.)
The phrase “conspicuous consumption” has been around for some time. It describes a cultural value that leads to deforestation, pollution, habitat loss, endangered species… in general, it leads to damage of our only home planet.
Conspicuous […]
translation:
I don’t understand a word you’ve said. I don’t think I speak that language. I don’t think I can understand your values. I don’t know how to express mine.
Sprechen zie deutsche?
