Dear Friends,
It seems to me, there is what is and what we think is. To sharpen the point, there is the reality of a thing and how we think of it. Take justice for example, there is the reality of justice, and how we think about justice. Thrasymachus said, justice is the advantage of the strong over the weak. In other words in his mind justice is the law of the jungle transcribed. However, even a dog knows what justice is in its reality. So what we have is what Justice really is and what various people think it is. Law is another example of a thing that has an overt meaning and a covert meaning. The overt meaning is that little people are protected from powerful people by it, but the covert meaning is, law allows powerful people’s usurpations to be called just. These are but two examples of many.
Words are just sounds that denote an idea. As long as everyone agrees on what those ideas are, communication happens. When the ideas are jumbled, miscommunication happens. If a party uses a word so that the other party believes it means one thing, but it really means another… that’s manipulation. Take for example, a man selling a burlap sack with something wriggling inside. The buyer assumes it’s a piglet, so buys it. The seller knows it’s a cat, so he has defrauded the buyer. The problem is asymmetric information. What was meant was different than what was presumed. There is what is and there is we think there is. Words then have no innate meaning, only the meaning we assign to them. That in and of itself is the source of the issue of miscommunication and manipulation.
The meaning of a word is modified by a modifier. That’s obvious enough. But what’s the deeper meaning of this phrase? What I mean is that when we modify “Justice” in any way, it no longer means justice but something else. Yet those who hear it only hear ‘justice’ and forget the modifier. This is exactly the way a word or phrase can be understood two different ways by two different speakers. So when we hear terms such as “economic” justice, “Social” justice, or “Tax” justice, we are being manipulated, like being sold a pig in a poke (a burlap sack). Such wordplay can even be used to call evil good and good evil. If environmental justice demands farms close, then the people who ate the food produced, will just have to suffer as well… in the name of justice.
Miscommunication isn’t only from simple misunderstanding or manipulation, it comes from the very nature of language itself. Kung Sung Lung, an ancient Chinese philosopher, famously said, “A white horse is not a horse but a black or yellow one is…” Invoking universals he “proved” that a white horse is not a horse it’s something else. Obviously what he really proved was that language is insufficient to convey ideas perfectly. There will always be room for a different understanding. This is the fundamental issue with law. That fundamental flaw is that no matter how well written, understood, and applied, there will always be loopholes. They are unavoidable because of the flawed nature of language itself to convey thought.
If language is so worthless then why use it at all? Because its an expedient. As long as we understand it as such there’s no problem. Universals like justice are made into something else by a modifier. That way phrases like economic justice can be seen as the manipulations they are. This is because we aren’t taking language as categorical it’s merely an expedient, to get a point across the vast distance between minds. In ancient China an emperor had an obelisk erected. Upon it, all the laws carved in stone so all could see, be held to them, and be protected by them. The people marveled at the innovation. A disciple of Confucius was asked what he thought. The disciple said it was a very bad idea. When pushed why, he replied, “Because people will argue to the head of a pin that the law doesn’t apply to them.”
Sincerely,
John Pepin
Language and Manipulation
Dear Friends,
It seems to me, there is what is and what we think is. To sharpen the point, there is the reality of a thing and how we think of it. Take justice for example, there is the reality of justice, and how we think about justice. Thrasymachus said, justice is the advantage of the strong over the weak. In other words in his mind justice is the law of the jungle transcribed. However, even a dog knows what justice is in its reality. So what we have is what Justice really is and what various people think it is. Law is another example of a thing that has an overt meaning and a covert meaning. The overt meaning is that little people are protected from powerful people by it, but the covert meaning is, law allows powerful people’s usurpations to be called just. These are but two examples of many.
Words are just sounds that denote an idea. As long as everyone agrees on what those ideas are, communication happens. When the ideas are jumbled, miscommunication happens. If a party uses a word so that the other party believes it means one thing, but it really means another… that’s manipulation. Take for example, a man selling a burlap sack with something wriggling inside. The buyer assumes it’s a piglet, so buys it. The seller knows it’s a cat, so he has defrauded the buyer. The problem is asymmetric information. What was meant was different than what was presumed. There is what is and there is we think there is. Words then have no innate meaning, only the meaning we assign to them. That in and of itself is the source of the issue of miscommunication and manipulation.
The meaning of a word is modified by a modifier. That’s obvious enough. But what’s the deeper meaning of this phrase? What I mean is that when we modify “Justice” in any way, it no longer means justice but something else. Yet those who hear it only hear ‘justice’ and forget the modifier. This is exactly the way a word or phrase can be understood two different ways by two different speakers. So when we hear terms such as “economic” justice, “Social” justice, or “Tax” justice, we are being manipulated, like being sold a pig in a poke (a burlap sack). Such wordplay can even be used to call evil good and good evil. If environmental justice demands farms close, then the people who ate the food produced, will just have to suffer as well… in the name of justice.
Miscommunication isn’t only from simple misunderstanding or manipulation, it comes from the very nature of language itself. Kung Sung Lung, an ancient Chinese philosopher, famously said, “A white horse is not a horse but a black or yellow one is…” Invoking universals he “proved” that a white horse is not a horse it’s something else. Obviously what he really proved was that language is insufficient to convey ideas perfectly. There will always be room for a different understanding. This is the fundamental issue with law. That fundamental flaw is that no matter how well written, understood, and applied, there will always be loopholes. They are unavoidable because of the flawed nature of language itself to convey thought.
If language is so worthless then why use it at all? Because its an expedient. As long as we understand it as such there’s no problem. Universals like justice are made into something else by a modifier. That way phrases like economic justice can be seen as the manipulations they are. This is because we aren’t taking language as categorical it’s merely an expedient, to get a point across the vast distance between minds. In ancient China an emperor had an obelisk erected. Upon it, all the laws carved in stone so all could see, be held to them, and be protected by them. The people marveled at the innovation. A disciple of Confucius was asked what he thought. The disciple said it was a very bad idea. When pushed why, he replied, “Because people will argue to the head of a pin that the law doesn’t apply to them.”
Sincerely,
John Pepin