If people were deceiving you right to your face would you want to know? That’s not such an unheard of idea. When people talk with each other today it’s common not to say what we mean.
Honey, do these jeans make me look fat?
No.
[It’s your butt that makes your jeans look fat but I can’t say that.]
Would you like to go out again?
Yes.
[He never heard from her again.]
He’s a really great worker.
[I’m glad he’s out of my department. He wasn’t a good employee.]
It’s easier to say what we think someone wants to hear instead of saying what we think. We want to avoid hurting another person or the confrontation that might ensue. We want to get our way so we gloss over the truth. Taking the painless way out is just easier. In our communication theses practices are common and it’s considered acceptable. It’s delivering a message by using words that hide our true thoughts.
That is one way to use language for our benefit. Another way is by changing definitions of words in order to con others. It has been happening for years yet most people aren’t aware of it.
We learn language from our parents, from school, and from the world around us. As a word is introduced to us we learn what it means. From there we build sentences, which make it possible to get our message across to others. Communication occurs when a speaker conveys a message and a listener understands what the speaker is saying. It takes the speaker using the right words for his message and the listener understanding what those word mean.
HERE’S THE PROBLEM: What happens when the definitions of words are changing from what we learned them to mean and we aren’t aware that it’s happening?
Take the word crib. Standing alone we don’t know if the meaning of the word is a baby’s bed or a place to live. The word has changed meanings. The word reality means actual, truth; it’s real. Today we use the word reality as being real or the resemblance of being real. The word reality originally meant it had to be fact. Today we find what might appear to be real and say its reality.
We’ve seen it on television shows. We used to have reality shows where people were shown as their real self. Later on we find out the reality stars had been coached so it would make better TV. From there we changed reality programs to actuality programs to show that actuality is the real thing. Right.
We even changed the word true. It originally meant fact, actual, genuine, real. Today the word true means conforming to reality. We just learned that we define reality today as resembling something real.
The word true went from fact to anything that looks like it could be fact.
Look at how this affects us when we converse. When someone tells you that something is true we think it is fact. What they mean is it’s something that appears to be fact but might not be. If you take what the speaker says as real you are being fooled. Their intention is to deceive you so you will believe them. The speaker is using the change in definitions to manipulate you to their ideologies. You are being duped and you don’t even know it.
It may seem harmless but it is anything but that. When a person is exposed to something over a period of time they become accustomed to it and will accept it. For instance, you see a dirty window at home and it bothers you but you don’t take the time to clean it. After a period of time it doesn’t bother you anymore. Your viewpoint has changed. You have been conditioned to accept what you really wouldn’t allow before. This is how the changing of definitions is moving the beliefs and actions of unsuspecting sheep.
There are more examples like this that we will explore. There are even other ways language is being used to mold another philosophy on the naïve. They will be covered as well.
No need to fret. An informed mind is an effective mind. There are things we can do to fight this takeover. We must be enlightened to what is going on so we won’t be fooled, and instead make a difference.
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