Ever repeated a word until it loses its meaning, until you are unsure if it is a word at all? It is quite interesting in my opinion as it shows that the value we attribute to a word is malleable and once the word loses meaning it no longer carries the emotional weighting that it may have once held. Well, until the effect of the experiment wears-off and the value returns.
Perhaps this is what is happening with a whole range of subjects. Through repeated and incorrect usage, terms can be hijacked and what may have once been used as a potent argument for or against something, has been diluted down into a largely flaccid meaning that carries no real value.
Last night I wrote a post about Stalking which in my opinion is a very serious matter however, through the age of the internet has become severely diluted. Stalking has become a term that implies scrolling through someone's social feed on Facebook or Instagram and similar, and being labelled a 'stalker' is more of a joke between friends.
This type of dilution of terms takes away the element of danger in the word and through this, the understanding of the concept itself. Those that have to deal daily with the ramifications of actual stalking cases likely hold no illusion as to the actual meaning and probably understand the dangers in the dilution.
This isn't the only area however and there are a number of other prominent hijacks through dilution that are current in our society.
One that just came up very recently was in a chat room where a user called me a fascist and referenced me as the Fuhrer. This was in a private room after he was asked not to discuss something and then he complained about his rights to speak and how he is tired of being 'told' what he can talk about. I went on to explain the position.
The confusion lays in his understanding of his rights. He was well able to speak but, as I have said before, there are also the rights of reaction and in a private chat room, that may mean being muted or thrown out. He also has no right to be listened to yet consistently complains that he gets ignored, his voice is not heard.
This has nothing to do with fascism however as that is a style of totalitarian government where a governmental authority dictates and often violently enforces order. A fascist is someone that follows the philosophy and supports its actions. The reference to the Fuhrer is obviously his feelings that I was acting like a Nazi. Perhaps people should get reacquainted with history and understand what the Nazis actually did and perhaps they would realise that their feelings on the matter in most places they use the term, are invalid.
Racism is another example that has seen a sharp dilution where it is now being used for anyone that raises questions concerning anything race related, especially if the potential answer to the question may imply that there are differences between various races.
This dilution has meant that rather than people having a better understanding of the physical and social makeups of society, important conversations are not happening because to broach the subject it to get labelled a racist. Throughout my life, I have experienced my fair share of racism and what people are claiming today as racist rarely fits the bill.
Another issue is the climate change arguments for or against. In this case, the topic hasn't only been diluted through FUD, it has been switched from a discussion about pollution. A discussion that 30 odd years ago had nothing to do with global warming, it had to do with clean air and water.
There is unlikely a person on earth that would prefer more pollution in their immediate environment yet will fight tooth and nail over the legitimacy of climate change. They have lost the sight of reality as pollution is the real issue at hand. The interesting thing for me is that focusing on pollution would have the best chance of affecting climate change if it is real, and if it is not or we can't stop it, we will still have cleaner air and water to breathe and drink and benefit from a cleaner experience.
From my view, the reason that these terms are being diluted is that we are actually very poor students of history and we need to actually experience things in order to understand. Most people that are raising their voices across these types of topics have rarely lived in them yet, believe they know what they are.
It isn't until one has feared for their safety through unwanted attention that the term Stalker returns to its original weighting. It isn't until one lives under the extreme oppression of a totalitarian government that one can understand Fascism. It is not until one truly experiences deep levels of Racism that the term carries true weight. And in the case of Pollution, it seems that it is not until one is choking on the air and unable to swallow the water that energy is put into understanding the reality of the situation.
The solution to this in my view is always the same and that is to take responsibility for our ourselves and be interested enough to investigate who we are and how we act and see if our beliefs and expectations are congruent with reality. I expect very few to ever take this approach though as what most really crave is, social validation for their beliefs.
Taraz
[ a Steemit original ]