Somewhere I wonder if people have read too much of Orwell's 1984 and Iain M. Banks Culture series and have decided that between Newspeak and Marain is an idea that whilst we may not better the world today, if we can obliterate language we can obliterate an idea.
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis put to use as a tool to ensure that future generations of humans will avoid the problems that have plagued us for all time, because the ideas that perpetuate those issues will have been eradicated.
I'm left in awe at the audacity of it, the idea that human nature itself can be changed just by striking out words from the language. Seems implausibly naive and paternalistic.
>we can obliterate language we can obliterate an idea.
This is effectively one of the tenets of postmodernist thought. That language shapes reality. There is truth in the idea that language can influence perception but that doesn't mean that negative ideas can be eliminated by merely controlling language...
I feel like half of it is partly related to a perceived lack of power. You can have practically no power to affect votes on a law, or free someone you believe has been unjustly jailed, or remove someone from office; but you can yell at someone on twitter because they used the wrong word.
People making themselves the victims over language isn’t even new. You say happy holidays and someone goes on a rant about Christianity being under attack.
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis put to use as a tool to ensure that future generations of humans will avoid the problems that have plagued us for all time, because the ideas that perpetuate those issues will have been eradicated.
I'm left in awe at the audacity of it, the idea that human nature itself can be changed just by striking out words from the language. Seems implausibly naive and paternalistic.