The Undiscovered Country

Kill Language, Kill Freedom

I love watching my son grow up. What parent doesn't, right? The best part for me is how he develops, especially when it comes to language. When he was still a toddler, I was astounded at how quickly he picked up concepts, and how they all tied to language. For instance, I showed him an apple, and said "This is an apple." He understood right away what I meant. He also didn't get confused when I taught him colors. I pointed to a red apple to show him "red," and he easily grasped the difference between "red" and "apple." I understood then that language is built into our brains and develops naturally as we grow up.

Language keeps us connected to each other, and helps us learn about the world. Without language, we couldn't build anything (consider the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11:1-9). Imagine trying to build a house with others without the ability to communicate what needs to be done.

Even math and music are considered languages, and while some believe they can do without math, most everyone needs music.

Mess with language, and we mess with the free exchange of ideas. People no longer understand their world or each other, and we no longer grow as a species.

George Orwell understood this better than most, I think. He expressed his concerns in an essay titled "Politics and the English Language." http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/english/e_polit

He dug deeper into and expressed it more in his book, "1984," most specifically with the language he labeled as "Newspeak."

According to http://www.orwelltoday.com/newspeak.shtml: "The whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought."

To expand the idea (on the same webpage):

"Newspeak was the official language of Oceania and had been devised to meet the ideological needs of Ingsoc, or English Socialism. In the year 1984 there was not as yet anyone who used Newspeak as his sole means of communication, either in speech or writing. The leading articles in The Times were written in it, but could only be carried out by a specialist. It was expected that Newspeak would have finally superseded Oldspeak (or Standard English) by about the year 2050. Meanwhile it gained ground steadily, all Party members tending to use Newspeak words and grammatical constructions more and more in their everyday speech."

I ran into this article earlier today:

http://dailycaller.com/2017/02/20/college-writing-center-declares-american-gramm...

Which in turn led me to University of Washington / Tacoma's University Writing Program and their Writing Center:

https://www.tacoma.uw.edu/university-writing-program/writing-center

Under "Our Beliefs" of their "Statement on Antiracist and Social Justice Work in the Writing Center" it states:

"The writing center works from several important beliefs that are crucial to helping writers write and succeed in a racist society. The racist conditions of our society are not simply a matter of bias or prejudice that some people hold. In fact, most racism, for instance, is not accomplished through intent. Racism is the normal condition of things. Racism is pervasive. It is in the systems, structures, rules, languages, expectations, and guidelines that make up our classes, school, and society. For example, linguistic and writing research has shown clearly for many decades that there is no inherent “standard” of English. Language is constantly changing. These two facts make it very difficult to justify placing people in hierarchies or restricting opportunities and privileges because of the way people communicate in particular versions of English."

I'm sure you can see the correlation between Newspeak and what the writing center is espousing.

What led me on this journey (thanks to Voxxylady ) is this article:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/books/ct-publishers-hiring-book-readers...

According to the article, some publishers are hiring so-called sensitivity readers "who, for a nominal fee, will scan the book for racist, sexist or otherwise offensive content. These readers give feedback based on self-ascribed areas of expertise such as 'dealing with terminal illness,' 'racial dynamics in Muslim communities within families' or 'transgender issues.'"

These statements are of special concern:

"Sensitivity readers have emerged in a climate - fueled in part by social media - in which writers are under increased scrutiny for their portrayals of people from marginalized groups, especially when the author is not a part of that group."

And:

"It feels like I'm supplying the seeds and the gems and the jewels from our culture, and it creates cultural thievery," Clayton [a sensitivity reader] said. "Why am I going to give you all of those little things that make my culture so interesting so you can go and use it and you don't understand it?"

Also known as "cultural appropriation."

As an aside, for me personally, I don't care who writes about my culture, as long as they do so accurately. Not every person in a particular culture wants to write about their culture, so why limit themselves, and in the end possibly dooming their culture's future to oblivion because no one dared, or was allowed to, write about it?

As another aside, the article included this:

"Despite the efforts of groups like We Need Diverse Books, 'it's more likely that a publishing house will publish a book about an African-American girl by a white woman versus one written by a black woman like me,' Clayton says."

I'm calling bullshit on that. During my own search of agents, I had to cross out quite a few because they are actively seeking so-called marginalized writers such as Ms. Clayton. For which I am not a member.

Most agents care only about the story and the quality of writing. They don't give a rat's ass about the writer's race, gender, etc.

Even those seeking minorities still need a salable story, so although a person's minority status may get them to the front of the line, he/she still has to deliver. Seems to me, Ms. Clayton is holding herself back, and using her race and gender as an excuse not to try, let alone succeed. Too harsh? Offensive even? Good.

Now back to the original subject.

All of this is political correctness not only run amok, but an attempt to control thought. When you control how language is used - eliminating certain words, or changing the definition of words in order to change peoples' perception - you can control how a person thinks. When you control how someone thinks, that person loses their freedom to think otherwise. They can no longer think critically, because, in a sense, their words are chosen for them. The number of words - and ideas - they can use are curtailed if not outright eliminated.

If I offend you, or if you offend me, all the better. To quote (where it originated I don't know): "The solution to offensive free speech is more free speech, not less."

Writers especially need to protect all words and language - our tools of trade. We can't allow any type of censorship, because once it grabs hold, we may lose everything.

Truth is most often found in offensive speech, because it forces us to think and respond. Human beings are experts at lying to ourselves, and lying to each other. By attempting to control words and speech, the truth gets lost and liars rule at the expense of everyone else.