Language

We made things up.  How?  We created labels to describe things and events we encountered.  We assigned meaning to these labels.  How?  We used language.  Yep.  Over the course of many centuries our often-feeble minds developed systems of grunts and groans and other vocal cord vibrations (not to mention facial expressions and hand gestures) to describe our world.  We even developed language to describe how we “feel” about these things and events.  Of course, we also had to develop language to identify what “feelings” are and how they relate to those things that are not feelings.  Get the idea?

Sounds like a useful tool, this language concept, huh?  It sure is, but it’s not without its issues.  First, we didn’t develop just one language so that everyone on Earth would have the same framework in which to make things up.  We developed hundreds of languages.  None of these languages has all of the identical word concepts of any of the others.  Some are extremely similar but not identical.  Even people who use the same language don’t use all the same words to describe the same things.  Even more exciting, many people who use the same language don’t agree on the meanings of the same words.  

This leaves us with systems for making things up that are “wide open” for interpretation and manipulation.  If you are living in the early decades of the “21st Century”, look around you.  Listen carefully.  Wow!  We have certainly become adept at “linguistic gymnastics”.  In particular, our politicians, attorneys and academic “leaders” (please?!) have become exceptionally good at redefining words and even making them “mean” exactly the opposite of what they used to tell us these words meant.  

More to the point, language is our (made up) basis for analyzing and describing the realm we are experiencing. Agreement about what words mean is important for shared understanding of ideas, concepts, and well, everything.  We frequently hear about how important it is for us to communicate, understand, coexist and live in peace with our fellow man.  Failure to have agreed upon standards for the language we use makes these goals virtually impossible to achieve.  It also makes it far more difficult for the average human to understand the things that are going on around them.   

So, if you are going to share your ideas with us, choose your words carefully. Think through what you are actually trying to say. We want to understand you.