Language of the Future

Language is cause.  Language is effect.  Language can be liberating; it can be enthralling.  One thing that language almost never is:

neutral.

We go to war for "Freedom." We call a bureaucratic ploy for control a pretty name like No Child Left Behind, and--suddenly--it's untouchable.  How can you disagree with freedom?  Do you really want to leave children behind?

So, how does a sane adult cut through the rhetorical catchphrases that oversimplify such complex issues as war and education?

Well, language is often used to create positive change.  In "Beyond Civilization," Daniel Quinn argues that instead of trying to steer people away from something (in his case, civilization; in this case war and NCLB), we should create a new meme, a new vision of what is desirable.

Sometimes changing the meme is as simple as changing a word.  Quinn quotes Marshall Sahlins who said, "We are inclined to think of hunters and gatherers as poor because they don't have anything; perhaps better to think of them for that reason as free."  The choice of words is essential to the vision.  Instead of insisting (in our materialistic culture) that being poor is good, we simply find something that our culture values (at least in theory) even more, such as being free from restraints.

Changing the language that surrounds the issue, however big or small it may be, changes the thinking and the values attached to it.  And, of course, once the mind and the heart are pointed in the right direction, we need only get out of our own way as we head to a better future.