To me, at least, it seems like there is a more insidious rationale at work here and that is the desire to stifle certain forms of expression. It started with the whole PC movement and has now progressed to the point that anything that even remotely resembles upsetting words or symbols needs to be eliminated.
I bet Orwell would love this.[/quote]
Well Allan, I agree with you, to an extent, and actually our shooter does as well – regarding language to be changed to control people. Frank Luntz, Republican Strategist has perfected it. His studies show people are supremely emotional in decision making. Decades of marketing research shows this as well. Some decent online documentaries on this are “Century of Self” and “The Persuaders”.
Now, what country is the most PC in the world? It sure is not the US. Not by a long shot. It’s Germany. And I’m sure you can figure out why.
Somebody commented on how the Nazi’s could turn the public on Jews and other minorities up thread. It’s easy, mass communication coupled with demonization and dehumanization mix in a little social stress and voilà.
We spend most of our time not as individuals, but communicating with each other – we are the subjects of mass communication. This is turn effects what we “see” and “hear” in a collective sense.
Social experience shapes the details of brain psychology, the infants brain is made to fit into the culture in which it was born. Six month old’s can hear and make every sound in virtually every human language, the very physical existence of neurons to the tune of 50% are naturally forced to commit pre-programmed cell suicide to fit into the larger framework of the cultural pattern. Babies, one or two years old that see another infant hurt, or hear it crying, do not merely ape the child’s distress, they share it empathetically.
See mirror neurons:
Children cram their powers of perception into a conformist mold, connecting their attention to what others see. Perceptions become the slaves of social commands – it has been proven that children will come to accept and like food that they have disliked previously by putting them into a situation of peer pressure with other children for a period of time, as an example. Like wise, long term couples will mirror heart rate, blink speed and all sorts of mannerisms.
Words are the ultimate repository of the herd influence. What we perceive with words is influenced through generations of men, women, families, tribes, and nations – insights, value judgments, ignorance and beliefs are communicated through words. Word’s literally carry the impact of either life or death in many instances.
We are subject to use and knowledge of this understanding in an experimental petri dish called society, where all the tools of human knowledge are being used to mold us to a conformity – by those “who know what’s best for us.”
