The Corruption of Language

http://theweek.com/section/cartoon/52/216211/social-issues

" If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought." - George Orwell

The basic function of any language is to provide a set of symbols to narrate objective facts and subjective opinions about human condition (which I would call "poetic facts"). In both cases, the challenge is to achieve it with fewest words without compromising the narrative.Clarity of message and simplicity of expression are essential.

The opposite of clarity is vagueness and opposite of  simplicity is "verbal posturing" -using complicated words to dazzle the audience. Vagueness has a place in language but verbal posturing is unjustifiable. Vagueness is powerful because it evokes feelings. It creates a "skeleton" of a specific feeling in the mind of the subject which he then fills with his own fears, hopes and dreams. ( Room 101 in 1984,  "Yes we can" by President Obama). It is an essential tool to  express abstract poetic facts and its a key element of any inspirational speech. But when the matter under consideration is an analysis of the facts, where clarity and simplicity are essential, vagueness and indulgence in feelings is a cardinal sin.

 Context is the key. For a vague expression there must be a context. When Bob Dylan sings " the answer is blowing in the wind" there is a back ground assumption that "it is poetry" which by its very nature has the luxury of using vague expressions. Similarly, when MLK, said " I have a dream" , the context of an inspirational speech was there. 

 In this new era, a new form of expression is emerging . People are using vague language   in situations where clarity and simplicity are crucial.Typical example is politics . Here, hyper inflated vague  language is used to massage the truth, sugar coat a lie, make people feel good ( without providing any real value to their lives), impressing people with their fake erudition ( verbal posturing) and dominating their opponent. I think its morally corrupt and intellectually dishonest and it debases the language. 

 In my experience, most public figures (Talk show hosts for example) are full of this verbiage. Empty calories of language. Many a time, after listening to somebody for more than an hour, I still can not tell what was he trying to say ( or trying not to say) because there was little (if any) exchange of information. I can't even say that it was false or wrong. All I can say is that its gibberish - words strung together in good sounding expressions devoid of any meaning.

There are several reasons why this vague complicated language ( or in Orwell's words " as a cuttle fish squirting ink.") is becoming so prevalent  

- Plain Dishonesty  - The simple fact is that sometimes people are just dishonest. This is especially true in politics. Politics is based on impressing people and making them feel good. Massaging the truth and sugar coating a lie are done in an attempt to please the voters .

- Political Correctness and Ego Stroking - In current culture everyone is "above average". Everyone is special, winner, lovable and just plain awesome. It might be a logical and mathematical  impossibility ("everyone above average") but who cares as long as everybody's ego get stroked. Its creating a generation of people with a sense of entitlement whose feelings get hurt when facing the truth. 

Here is clip of my favorite comedian George Carlin talking about this social disease ( and also about a few more)

Conflict of opposites creates the drama of life. How good success is if there is no failure? How good love is if you have to love everyone? 

- Fashion/Posturing - esp. post modern French literature. Here is an interesting story.  Alan Sakol , a physicist in New York University once wrote a parody with a title of " Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity." According to the author " It was a chock full of absurdities." and " by a series of stunning leaps of logic", he arrived at the following conclusion.

" the Pi of Euclid and the G of Newton, formerly thought to be constant and universal, are now perceived in their historicity; and the putative observer becomes fatally de-centered, disconnected from any epistemic link to a space-time point that can no longer be defined by geometry alone." 

Confused? You bet. Alan send this article to a trendy American cultural studies journal , Social Text. And guess what, it got accepted and published. Worse, it was published in a special issue of Social Text devoted to rebutting the criticisms by several distinguished scientists against post modernism and social constructivism. Later he wrote a book called " Fashionable Nonsense" in which talks about similar kind of intellectual dishonesty and abuse of science which is so prevalent in some fields of humanities .

I think there are some lessons to be learned here

- Be very skeptic of experts. A lot of times they talk about issues with self assurance that far outstrips their competence.

- Be on guard when someone is using big words or worst of all made up big words ( " refudiate" by Sarah Palin) 

- And most important of all, if you don't understand something, don't believe it and don't be intimidated by it.

- Confused Minds with Lack of Coherent Thoughts - Language is an expression of thought. Confused language is one of the signs of a confused mind.

- Demise of Guys and Rise of Feminism -  Lets face it. Marlboro man is dead and masculinity in general is dying. Rules of the game are changed and  men are totally confused about their new role in this ever changing battle of sexes. ( Its always harder for the losing party to adjust to the new environment).The reasons are many and I won't discuss them here ( they deserve a separate discussion) but the effects are devastating.

Confused roles produce confuse thoughts and thus confused language. Here is one example. Men today don't know whether they should be polite with the opposite sex ( which can be read as patronizing or a sign of weakness - By the way, this misunderstanding is a very common in people who recently acquire power. They are very touchy about it. Want to test it? Offer your help to a teenager!) or strong ( which can be read as rude and now he is a stereotypical man ). ( Hint - just be fair and respectful to yourself and to other people. )

George Orwell in his essay " Politics and the English Language" mentioned that direct single word verbs ( break, stop, kill, mend) are now being replaced by passive phrases made up of some noun or adjective tacked on to some general purpose verb ( passed away, give rise to , make contact with ). In my opinion one reason is that  pro-activeness and directness which in a way used to define masculinity are now replaced by reactiveness and indirectness which then manifests in language. 

- Confusing Poetic Truth with Literal Truth - All religions speak poetic truth. A religion is like an abstract art and poetry ( you may call it poorly written poetry but its a poetry nonetheless). And as with poetry and abstract art, everybody has different capacity to understand a religion. Worst, religion lends itself to people who abuse it by using poetic expressions as scientific facts and objective truths. In this case, the problem is more with the listener than with the speaker.

( I would like to explain the above point in little more detail. What you get from poetry and art depends on where you are. Its meaning changes with time and is also different for different people. Ask a good artist what is the meaning of his painting and he will look at you as if you are crazy. It has no meaning. You give it a meaning based on where you are. Similarly, the word God has different meaning for different people even in the same religion.)

- Lack of Empathy and Courage to Speak the Truth - George carlin in his famous stand up routine speaks about how over the course of last 80 years the word Shell Shock has deteriorated in to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder ( which is now abbreviated and spoken as PTSD !). One word evokes the feelings of shock and tragedy while the other word is cold and clinical. Speaking about post traumatic stress disorder is no different than talking about a toaster. This elimination of emotional content may make the speaker feel better, but it totally ignores the suffering of the victim. This a sign of lack of empathy and courage to speak the truth.

- Shooting the Messenger - No one wants to be the bearer of  the bad news. So what do we do? We wrap it up in vague language. Politicians do it. Even a lot of Physicians do it.

- Treating Major Social Issues as a Sport - In sports, what matters the most is winning . everything else is secondary. Letting this attitude permeate in major social debates can create groups of people who would support a party or a leader no matter what. ( " He may be a son of a bitch but he is our son of a bitch." - FDR on Nicaraguan dictator Somoza Garcia ). Rational thinking and clear language goes on vacation when an argument degrades in to "Us vs Them."

R word, L word, N word, F Word, LoL - Symbols slapped on symbols. And facts, they are crushed underneath a pile of symbols and cliches. But all of this is not without a price. One can see the effects  in "gimme generation" with a false sense of entitlement, confused directionless youth, political corruption, vague non specific fear which permeates the whole society, people lack of trust in each other, arrogance and cruelty. 

Churchill once said, " The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is.". The big question is, are we trying to change truths by changing the language? And does truth even matter to people anymore?