Unfortunately, for once, I found myself aware of what was happening in popular culture. What I saw made me feel uneasy, and not for the same reasons it seems to have made others. Briefly, someone made a joke about the appearance of someone with a medical condition. The person’s husband then slapped the person who made the joke. The only reason why this became ‘news’ was because it happened in front of millions of people, live, on television.
This one little event then filled the media airwaves with the dull drone of a million angry voices. Suddenly, an invasion was relegated to page 2 as now there was a real news story. Most of the commentary I was unfortunate enough to see revolved around the slap. This led to the strange paradox of people going on television and social media to say, ‘it was just words, which is why I have to speak up’. This, as you can see, is absurd. If, indeed, they were just words, and words are inherently meaningless, then speaking up about it is the equivalent of adding a cup of water to the ocean. And, indeed, this is what it is. That one extra cup may be the difference between someone drowning or living.
The joke was based on one thing- the physical appearance of a lady who had lost her hair due to a medical condition. The argument that this was just ‘comedy’ and people should ‘expect it’ is deeply concerning because these are the sentiments that were expressed to justify racism and misogyny. Would the man who made the joke, who was black, be happy if a white comedian publicly made jokes about his appearance, i.e. his skin colour? And would, if he went on stage to slap the comedian, the media, many of whom were Hollywood celebrities, be condemning his actions or praising him for standing up to racism?
Yes, we have to say that Hollywood, the supposed liberal paradise, has a history of being on the wrong side of events. Charlie Chaplin was ostracized from Hollywood for making the film The Great Dictator, which mocked Hitler. Even though it was known that there were concentration camps and genocide going on, Hollywood adored Hitler and accused Chaplin of being a Jew for criticising him. Also, as we have mentioned here before, there was the time that Marlon Brando sent a Native American lady to reject his Oscar for The Godfather and read a statement outlining the glorification of genocide and the continuing mistreatment of Native Americans. This, as you can imagine, did not go down well at the Oscars and the lady was treated exactly the way that Brando was accusing Hollywood of treating Native Americans. In more recent times, we have the #MeToo movement which showed the level of sexual abuse in Hollywood, something many in Hollywood said they already knew about. From these three examples we can see that Hollywood has no ethical credibility and those who have been speaking up are just reinforcing the narrative of a Hollywood so in love with itself that it abuses others to continue the lie (who’d have thought that those in the entertainment industry would be insecure narcissists?).
The ‘speaking out’ was not relegated to fascist states (hello Hollywood), it also, predictably, took place on social media. What was interesting was that the argument that ‘they were just words and so they needed to speak up’ followed a set pattern. The words that were used were modern words such as Snowflake and Cancel Culture. A Snowflake is someone who is overly sensitive and Cancel Culture is what many people claim is happening to them when it turns out that, for example, women don’t like being sexually abused. Who’d have guessed it? What was interesting about this was that the speaking up about how meaningless words are happened using certain words with predetermined connotations. Here we had people who thought they were rebels sticking it to people who think words matter by using words they had been told mattered.
All of the above illustrates the importance of language. Words, it could be argued, are the most important tool we have for understanding our existence. We understand the world through conceptualisation. When we were children, we were shown a chair which follows certain properties. The label chair is then attached to it. Later we see something different but which conforms to many of the properties of a chair. We then attach the label chair to it as it fits the concept. Without the ability to label things we would not be able to understand what they are and this would cause chaos. If we wished to express this chaos, then we would need a tool to be able to do so so that another could understand what we are saying. As the other is aware of the concept being discussed, or can be taught what it means, and attach the label through definition, we can converse with the other on the topic. And so, without words, it would be almost impossible to communicate with another. Words, in this context, does not just mean written or spoken, it also includes sign language etc.
Whilst this gives the impression that language is an external construct, without language we would not be able to think clearly. Indeed, we would be forced to create our own concepts and labels just to make sense of the worlds without and within.
Antonio Gramsci, an Italian Marxist philosopher, journalist, linguist, writer, and politician, who was imprisoned by Mussolini wrote,
‘The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters’
as a commentary on the rise of fascism (note: Gramsci is disliked in the United States as he was a Communist who opposed fascism- think about that for a moment) and this we can see beautifully illustrated by the slap. One man thinks that humiliating someone due to their appearance caused by a medical condition is unacceptable yet the establishment sets out not to understand and change, rather to crush the one who shine a light on their failings as an organisation and as people.
One final thought, I challenge anyone who thinks that words do not matter to stand in Tiananmen Square, China, the place where student protesters were massacred by the Chinese Government in tanks and say, ‘This is where the students were killed’, then we’ll see if words matter.
‘till next time
Check back another time for Part 2: Censorship
thegreaterfool2016 