There is great power in language.
It’s impact is beyond reckoning, it is a medium that carries through time. It is what sets us apart from the beasts of air, land and water. I know animals do communicate but it cannot compare to that of man. Dexterity of tongue and hands combine to give man dominance over all other species.
It is said that language is a gift of the gods, that through the power of the word, civilisations have been crafted. When babies are born, helpless and totally dependant upon their parents, they do not have the gift of language at their disposal. Yet through the passage of a few years, remarkable skills of mimicking and copying are used to learn the language of the mother, the parents, the family. It is said that the majority of learning of an individual is in the first few years of life.
Yet weaknesses of parents are passed onto children. Pink Floyd in the album entitled “the Wall”, Roger Waters sang a phrase that I will never forget. In the lyrics of the track entitled “Mother”, when “Mother” replies to the fears of her son with the following words:
*“Hush now baby, baby, don’t you cry
Mama’s gonna make all of your nightmares come true
Mama’s gonna put all of her fears into you
Mama’s gonna keep you right here under her wing
She won’t let you fly but she might let you sing
Mama’s gonna keep baby cozy and warm
Ooh, babe, ooh babe, ooh babe
Of course Mama’s gonna help build the wall.”*
Dark words but there is a great deal of truth in them. Phobias, fears and traditions are all too easily passed on.
Strengths are passed too, values, dreams, and especially memories. Hunger for betterment, the hope of nearly all parents is for their children to be better than they were, to have better than they had. Words can create desires.
What man can question means that man can consider. Then what so often is seen in the mind will one day come to pass.
Words are the primary means of education, these words are recorded, printed, passed along and read by others. The dreams of one man can galvanise a nation, can create a nation, can destroy a nation.
We must have all heard the expression the pen is mightier than the sword. When a young boy I scoffed at it, I can still remember pondering about these words, then they made sense to me. The phrase gained great power in me. As the years have passed I have seen nations move into new areas of conflict. Words, ideas, their battle for dominance.
Before I was a teenager I became interested in World War Two and the Third Reich. Hitler gained great power because he was able to use words to mobilise Germany. Because of the powerful use of his words, he was able to mobilise the resentment of the German people into reaching a common goal. But his words warped aspirations of a down-trodden nation and made that nation a global monster, millions died and untold misery was unleashed on the planet.
Opposing Germany was Great Britain under the leadership of Winston Churchill. His words were powerful but different when compared to men like Hitler and Goebbels, these words allowed a small nation, for a time, to oppose the German juggernaut by themselves, I will never forget his famed speech when Britain faced its darkest hour.
“ Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender” (good old Wikipedia is the source)
We think too, of Martin Luther King, whose words mobilised the civil movement in America for the Negro.
The words of Steve Biko, who still have a profound impact in South Africa, whose words lead to his murder by Apartheid police when I was a teenager in South Africa.
Many lands, many nations, many created by the stirring words of their leaders.
In our current society, battles are being fought on media, truth is distorted to serve selfish interests. Armies are called “Defence Forces”, we must defend democracy “while our armies are occupying foreign countries”... Everyone else is a terrorist, or a dictator; we tell the truth; they tell lies. No longer is the word “Propaganda” used, rather “FAKE NEWS”. Objective reporting versus opinions. Me verses You.
The results of all of this bombardment is that the opinions of people become rigid, unyielding. You have your version but I will stick to mine. Polarisation of nations, intolerance in universities that once were celebrated for being “open-minded”, intimidation, violence and riots are the order of the day. Difference in opinions can lead to insults and threats and even end up in violence. Many who consider themselves liberal are thugs, no different from those they oppose. Words are dangerous and their calculated misuse by unscrupulous leaders has poisoned so many societies across the globe.
Yet the most treasured words of so many are the stories of family, tales of parents about times long ago that are avidly clung to by their children. These stories I hope, will continue to be passed down from one generation to the next. It is sadly said that when an old person dies, a library is burned to the ground. I remember how excited I was when my Dad gave me some typed pages from his Aunt Nellie, her memoirs it was entitled. It covers the period from the late 1800’s to the early 1900’s. I still remember those words whose pages shone a dim torch on a family’s life so long ago, I felt a feeling of kinship, of bonding. Ordinary people who lived noble lives, unheralded by the prominent, yet greatly treasured a hundred years later.
So use words with care, use courtesy, be kind rather than cruel. I have to be constantly reminded by my wife to rein in my caustic tongue and cruel sense of humour, too often at the expense of my girls, who I love greatly. How often have I heard the refrain “Don’t say it! If its not kind, don’t say it at all! I can see what you’re thinking, keep your mouth closed, don’t aggravate your children. Its not funny if its hurtful!” and so on.
Yes, the tongue can build up and the tongue can destroy. We must choose. I must remember the ideas of the words of Roger Waters in “the Wall”, I must build, I must not breakdown and destroy. Long after I have forgotten words uttered in jest, their impact will linger in the wounded heart, even for decades!
As it says in the Spider-man movies; “with great power comes great responsibility”. I may not shoot a web from my wrists and defeat villains, but in the real world my words can have greater power.
Think before you talk!
