Renaming the Paradigm

Bookworm has written a brilliant post which recounts a conversation between herself and her mother. She comes to the conclusion that the labels "left" and "right" ought to be renamed. Highly recommended reading.

Comments

[draftervoi]

Gail: I can't register over there just yet, could you pass this on?:

There are two types of authoritarian dictatorships. One is based on power derived from people with less than the median average income. These tend to be Leftist authoritarian regimes. The other is based on power derived from people with more than the median average income. These tend to be Righwing authoritarian dictatorships. The government of Burma self-identified themselves as "socialist" from 1974 to 1988. The same junta is running the country, but they no longer refer to themselves as socialist.

[Bookworm]

Thank you so much!

[Gail]

Bookworm: You're welcome! : )

Draftervoi: Bookworm didn't see your comment because it wasn't posted when she wrote the thank you above. I have emailed her and let her know about it.

[Ymarsakar]

Words have meaning so if you wish to communicate past somebody's emotional or intellectual barriers, you have to stop using the words that are essentially roadblocks in their mind.

Using new words makes people think in a new fashion, giving them a chance, a chance I say, to bypass the old blockages and ways of thinking.

This is why control of such words as "liberal", "democracy", "civil rights", "Geneva Conventions", etc. are so important to waging a psychological and terror war on Americans.

Control the words people use and you control how and what they think. Language is the tool by which we form abstract thought and when you control the language, you indirectly control people's thoughts. It is not true that if you eliminate a word in the language, you eliminate the concept in the human brain. But what you do do when eliminating or manipulating a word like freedom to mean a free ticket or free healthcare, is that you are now able to prevent people from forming correct abstract conceptions about freedom. When freedom is free, then who sacrifices? Somebody else, preferably the rich.

It is not that people think freedom is free. No, people know free healthcare has to be paid for. Modifying freedom to mean "free things" hasn't eliminated that abstract thought from people's minds. They just can no longer figure out, abstractedly, who should rightfully pay for things. If it isn't you, then it has to be somebody. So they can then easily be told who should pay for these things and then human ambition and greed naturally takes hold.

In a sense it is like a Gordian knot, the conceptions, rationales, abstractions, and what not that goes into a word for someone that has strong emotions or beliefs about that word or description like Right Wing.

Alexander solved the Gordian knot, a knot with the ends inside it so that you can't untie it from the outside, by cutting the knot with a sword and then unravelling it from the inside out.

Book chose a different way to enter the brainscape than the usual method.

[DRaftervoi]

Thanks, Gail. It's been a weird week. Our modem blew out, the bathroom sink backed up, and today it was 104 degrees outside (although I don't believe that, I don't think it was above 95). I find both sorts of dictatorships objectionable and people should not make excuses for them simply because they are "left" or "right" regimes and match up with their a priori convictions.

[Gail]

Ymarsaker: I agree with your thought on language and its importance. Nice use of the Gordian knot metaphor, speaking of language!

DRaftervoi: 104 degrees in SF? I didn't know it could get that hot there. I remember visiting in the summer and absolutely freezing in the wind and fog, having only brought summer clothing with me.

[DRaftervoi]

104 in Oakland, where I work...San Francisco was claiming 94. The usual wind pattern is cool winds blow inland. Every so often, a high pressure system sets up over Nevada and blows hot desert winds in the opposite direction, out to sea. This morning I'm seeing some reports that say Oakland hit 98 yesterday, which I find more believable. But there were multiple sources reporting the 104 yesterday...I just didn't think it felt that hot.