This month our focus is on Words and, if it is true that we need language to know what is going on in our heads, it follows that the more words we understand the better our understanding of ourselves and the rest of the world. Words are thus vital to our self-identity but also help us select responses to what is happening in the wider world.
Words are the building blocks of language and l have always been fascinated by them. My head is full of sayings such as the one used by the character Cardinal Richelieu in the 1839 play ‘The Conspiracy’ by Edward Bulwer-Lytton. “The Pen is mightier than the Sword.”
The same thought was expressed sixteen hundred years earlier by Ahiqar the Assyrian chancellor to King Sennacherib who wrote that, “The word is mightier than the sword.” That papyrus found in Egypt contains sayings from Ahiqar which also echo some proverbs found in the Old Testament.
Words have ancient power, and I find myself frustrated at those who presume that the use of a particular word is proof that the speaker holds views which they consider beyond the pale. An excellent example of this occurred during the last election, when a Staffordshire woman expressed concern about the level of immigration and was immediately denounced as a bigot.
Politically correct folk have, by definition, fixed their views but then appear to think that no one else should ever disagree with them. Their verboten subjects include the so-called consensus on global warming, where those who dare question their maths or assumptions are branded as deniers! Nor can we discuss the role of badgers in spreading bovine TB without being intimidated or shouted-down. Then there are those who get furious when we question notions of a multicultural society, and woe-betide anyone who queries the torrent of swear words on the TV. Finally, there are the BBC’s jokes about Christians but never a joke about Mohammedans as we used to call Muslims! I do not think there should be open-house on Islam but cannot see why the BBC pokes snide fun at one religion but not others. They don’t even make fun at Atheists.
My wife says I am a generally cheery soul, but I confess to being worried when people think that by restricting the use of certain words they can control what we think or see. An example being celebrities who pay PR people to get stories into the Newspapers, but who then become incandescent when a Paper prints some triviality they do not want us to know about.
Way back around AD90, St John sat down and put pen to paper. He wrote, “In the beginning was the Word ……….” Whatever he meant by that, he has certainly kept scholars busy ever since.
I will not trouble readers with my thoughts on the matter but hope they will do their own bit of research. Google is a good starting place and there is a lot to find. A word of warning however: Such journeys become pilgrimages through ones own mind and so do not start the journey if you anticipate an end.
We are all different and so some folks think that to getting to the end is more important than the journey. They are ones who will stop at some point and without realising it; the act of stopping will mean that the end has become the place where they stopped. It is their end but not the end.
Such folk risk becoming. An atheist, Fundamentalists or Talebanistic Jihadists from this ism, or that ism, and it’s a funny thing that the ones who stop learning usually have the answers to everything. However I cheer myself up by guessing that most readers see themselves as continuing the pilgrimage of hope. They are the ones who see words as handles with which to open doors rather than as devices to close them.
Talking of using words to open or close doors however, reminds me of the remark by a happily married friend who told of the time he and his wife had a very serious disagreement. With a wry smile he explained:
“We exchanged words. Unfortunately I didn’t get the chance to use mine.”
View from the Pew 