Parsing Out the Language of the 21st Century
In the days of the DADA Soirees in Chicago, one direction I gave to the various DADAists was to treat the nonsense non-language they employed in poetry and monologues as if it were a language no one in the audience could understand and allow the fury of trying to communicate ideas to a completely uncomprehending person push the tension in the performance. It made the shows electric and full of barely controlled chaos. In terms of non-art, it was a fantastic technique.
In this regard, the cry “Who is bald and noseless now?!” became an anti-war statement regarding the invasion of Iraq. The words don’t track but the rage behind them, the righteous meaning, still played to audiences despite the absence of linguistic clarity. Some audience members loved it, others were completely put off by it but the method resulted in DADAist art that was, at the very least, not boring.
In the First Testament myth of the Tower of Babylon, there is a lesson contained that underscores the rage of nonsensical DADA.
1 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2 And as they migrated from the east,[a] they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 And they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks and fire them thoroughly." And they had brick for stone and bitumen for mortar. 4 Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." 5 The LORD[b] came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built. 6 And the LORD said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another's speech." 8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9 Therefore it was called Babel, because there the LORD confused (balal) the language of all the earth, and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.
— Genesis 11:1–9
Imagine a Japanese man and a Russian woman, neither of who understands the language of the other, arguing over a parking space. A lot of hand gestures and a slowly boiling confrontation that resembles two English speaking Americans screaming at one another about a coffee order gone wrong.
Societal unity requires common language and understanding. Again, imagine if an entire cohort of drivers suddenly saw red as green, redefining the arbitrary name for a color in the spectrum. Driving in an American city would soon resemble a disaster sequence in a Roland Emmerich film. In order to function we must have an agreement of certain terms and labels or society becomes full of barely controlled chaos.
“Did you just say, out loud, that listening to someone without trying to solve their problem is treating them ‘like you would a broad’?”
“That’s what it sounded like, yeah.”
“Pretty misogynist, dude.”
“Really? You think that reference indicates a hatred for women? How do you define misogyny?”
“Well, not exactly hatred but…”
misogyny /mĭ-sŏj′ə-nē/
noun
Hatred or mistrust of women.
Hatred of women. Contrast misandry.
Hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women.
—American Heritage Dictionary
The concept creep is in full force. What was once the hatred or distrust of women is now any utterance that is not in complete lockstep with an infantile declaration that women are somehow above reproach, somehow more than human. To state that some women lie or cheat is considered misogynist. The two have a very different definition of the word and, thus, can’t find a simple agreement. To criticize the female half of the species is considered perfectly normal to one, a slippery slope into full on hatred to the other.
A rash of anti-Asian assaults in California lead some to conclude that these are racist attacks yet under more vague definitions it cannot be because the concept of racism is now intertwined with the notion of power rather than bigotry.
racism /rā′sĭz″əm/
noun
The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others.
Discrimination or prejudice based on race.
The belief that each race has distinct and intrinsic attributes.
—American Heritage Dictionary
Is silence violence or are insults violence? Is it both but arbitrarily assigned by subjective terms and, if so, how does anyone know whether to speak or be silent for fear of causing harm (another greasy term inflated to ludicrous standards)?
Is genocide an actual thing or is it merely another word to describe war?
Is colonize a word that can be applied to everything from gentrification to the appropriation to cultural norms?
Is a natural attraction to straight women just a sexual preference or the unnatural fear of transgender people?
“…let us go down and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another's speech.”
Is it cancel culture or accountability culture? When one side goes on the attack and attempts to silence a perspective heinous to their view of the world they will call it holding the other side to be accountable yet when the other side attempts the same thing is it no longer accountability sought? Also, who is the arbiter of accountability that we can all agree upon because it sure doesn’t seem to be the SCOTUS, the news media, or anyone so experienced in their field to be considered an expert.
Is the person who thinks that the focus on non-binary pronouns is sort of silly worthy of personal destruction for that view? Is the person who believes that their pronouns are a serious personal issue worthy of being mocked?
The only group that wins when the rest of us cannot find agreement in terms and language are the ridiculously wealthy and demagogues who see our inability to communicate as an opportunity to jam their power grabs into undefended territory. While we’re too busy arguing about the mushy concepts of equity versus equality and whether to continually expand the contents of hate speech, they’re buying and selling the land we live on, the oil that proliferates the end times, and sell us bullshit drugs that we don’t need while overcharging for the ones we need to survive.
