2 Febrero 2007
Terminologia
Estoy pensando en la terminología usada por los medios de comunicación y los políticos, en relación a los conceptos básicos de paz, derechos humanos, y justicia social. Aquí hay unos pensamientos:
- Me preocupe que en lugar de hablar sobre personas usando los términos “persona” o “ser humano”, usan la palabra “tropas” para nuestros soldados y los términos “terrorista”, “insurgente”, o “el enemigo” para la gente con quien peleamos. Estos términos deshumanizar la gente de ambos lados, para minimizar el impacto de su sufrimiento y/o muerte.
- Me preocupe oír el término “el objetivo” usado para significar “las acciones violentas de una guerra”. El uso de términos como estos trata de prevenir que la gente pensar en lo que ocurre realmente.
- El uso de la palabra “justicia” por la administración de Bush me preocupe. Durante todo del crisis actual en Irak, han hablado mucho sobre “traer gente a justicia” por bombardearlos o matarlos. Pensé que justicia fuera una de las fundaciones de los EEUU, y que significara cosas como un tribunal, evidencia, y las protecciones que tenemos en la Constitución. Matar antes y preguntar después no es la misma cosa, pero continúa.
- El uso común de la palabra “guerra” para cosas que no son guerras también me preocupa. Dos ejemplos son “la guerra contra drogas” y “la guerra contra pobreza”. ¿Piensan sobre que significa la palabra “guerra”? La guerra es un método extremo y violento de resolver un conflicto por coacción, o por matar el otro lado. La guerra causa muchas perdidas en los ejércitos de ambos lados, y también en los inocentes. ¿Es la imagen mejor que podemos usar para pensar en resolver problemas como drogas y pobreza?
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I am very much in agreement with your observations, particularly the use of the term “war” with respect to drugs and poverty. All of the things you mention seem to be designed to promote simplistic thinking, rather than thoughtful consideration. And in the case of the wars on drugs and poverty and terror, the implication is that we are at war with these people, when in fact I think that those who use drugs or are poor or are terrorists need to be understood, not alienated by being made the objects of war.
Dear Jennifer,
Your remarks about the use of language are so much to the point. It makes me happy to see that intelligent people like you just find out about the dubious ways of using words. More than dubious, I’d say, because the use of certain words is part of a conscious policy.
For instance, if people participating in a demonstration are described as a “mob”, they automatically get a negative connotation and an uncritical reader will tend to dislike them — because who likes a mob?
The Bush government has been particularly ‘creative’ in this respect, but the same is true for Blair and company. Actually this phenomenon has been used at all times and all places.
I don’t know whether you are a literary person, but if so, you might want to read Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell. In this superb novel he not only introduces Big Brother (nowadays misused as a tv-program) but also such ideas as the permanent war, Doublethink and Newspeach.
In this context Newspeach is very relevant. In Orwell’s dystopian novel it was meant to be a new language, promoted by the government, to make language simpler and to make alternative thinking (Thoughtcrime in the novel) almost impossible.
Nineteen Eighty-Four now almost seems a blueprint for governments to deceive their citizens. I wrote about it in my blog.
I am very much impressed by your bilingual website: a marvelous piece of e-craftmanship! I’ll think about implementing your method to my website, but I’d have to use three languages: Dutch, English and Spanish. I think it would mean a lot of extra work, but it might be worthwile.
Keep up the good work!
Sincerely yours,
Jan Marien
Belgium
Oh yes, I’m definitely a literary person, and I read Nineteen Eighty-Four many years ago. It is still relevant, as you say. Thanks for your comment!
Regarding doing a bilingual or multilingual web site, I have written an article on how to set it up (see link at bottom of this page). It does take some work, since you have to translate all the articles into the other language(s)… though you can start by setting up the framework and then add article translations as you have the time.
–Jennifer