What is this blog about?

By Fred Shivvin

This blog is about humans and how they use words. 

It looks at the way we use words to make sense of the world, to sort out our ideas, to share our thoughts with others, as well as whether the words we use make this easier or harder, clearer or messier.

The blog delves beneath everyday words to their origins, changes, value-loading, use, misuse and sometimes abuse. This often starts with linguistics, but also takes in psychology, sociology, cultural studies and philosophy - each of which can tell us something about ourselves.

Words can reveal our hang-ups, biases, fears, humour, aspirations, needs, reasoning, way of organising information about the world, social structures, ideas, values, and our interpersonal connections. 

The blog explores everyday words to see how well they serve us, what the use of those words tells us about ourselves and our society, and whether some words are loaded with problematic concepts or interpretations. 

Each post aims to find a small nugget of clarity amongst our word-filled days.

One word at a time. 

Are words really that important?

Okay, so what really matters are the ideas underneath our words, the assumptions that words are built upon, and the way we hold our ideas about the world all together. 

But here’s the thing - we can only form and communicate complex ideas with words. Words are the vehicle for our ideas, our reasoning, and an important way we connect with others. Without words, there is no way to sort out a messy or confused idea, no way to make sense of the complexity of the world, no way to be precise and clear about what we want and think.

Therefore, our choice of words is the most important thing for conveying our ideas successfully. Words allow us to share what’s in our heads with others and to understand others’ ideas and thoughts.

Snipped from social media, not sourced

Words are so often inadequate for this task. Words get loaded with the ambivalences and contradictions of our thinking. Words change meaning over time as we use them. Words hold room for misinterpretation, assumed-but-lacking understanding, and lots of rubbish talking. A stupid idea is still stupid despite being all dressed up in fancy words. But a useful idea is no value at all if it can’t be communicated to others, and that requires words - well chosen words.

So, we realise that words are imperfect vehicles for our thoughts and ideas. But this doesn't mean we should just be sloppy about our words. The words we use can do a better or poorer job of helping us think clearly and communicate our ideas.

We would say that civil discourse depends on effective interpersonal communication, through the vehicle of our words. Our democratic society requires a healthy, functioning civil discourse. 

Here’s our riff on the famous saying: 

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance about words and how we use them.

If you want to tackle injustice and problems, clear and precise words are critical. Words are how we think about the world, reason, justify, explain, persuade, encourage, motivate and provide support to others.

You may be wanting to take action about things that matter to you: you might be thinking that it’s time to protest, agitate, dismantle the state.

By all means do that.

However, if your actions and your aims are based on flawed or simplistic thinking about the way the world is, you may be ineffectual or ignored, or do more harm than good.

Thinking and talking clearly about what is happening, why you are motivated to act, and what you want instead - all of this requires careful and precise word use.

We don’t think there are times when words cease to be really important. 

Who are you writing for?

We are writing for people who enjoy exploring words and ideas and thinking about why our society is the way it is. 

Snipped from social media, not sourced

We ask our readers to step with us through our explorations, so they need to be willing to review their own assumptions and thinking, their way of organising what they think, and sometimes even look at their own underlying needs and vulnerabilities.

So, we write for people brave enough to entertain ideas that feel uncomfortable and to loosen their grip on feeling definite and certain about words and ideas. Never underestimate the rarity and value of such bravery! 

Why are the posts so ... er ... wordy? 

We explore words to look for understanding about human society. We write seeking clarity, complexity and coherence.

We want to understand why words can be so potent in human society, whether words are the reason that certain strange or flawed ideas gain traction, and what is it about the way we humans think and talk that makes the world the way it is. 

We are interested in the big picture of how our words influence the ways we participate in our society and culture.

Small problem: this topic is very big. Every question about one tiny aspect of how words are used in our society is massive.

We want to push back against simplistic and flawed ideas about 'why the world is this way' and superficial ideas of how things 'should be’.

So, this blog is long form writing. Exploring ‘how the world is’ is not easy, quick or brief. You can expect posts of about 2000 words. However, the posts are not always super serious: human needs and foibles can be discovered through explorations of funny and perplexing things we say.

So, get comfortable, get ready to be uncomfortable, and allow time for a long read. 

What motivates you to write about words?

We absolutely love words and language. Some posts will be entertaining for fellow word nerds. The imperfect nature of words as our vehicle for communication can be funny as well as infuriating.

Words are artefacts of human culture and behaviour that we can pick up and examine. We are endlessly curious about what our use of words reveals about humans and about society. 

Source: free png vector images

When a particular word 'scratches' our attention, we write about it to find the source of the prickly feeling and see if we can soothe that itch with new understanding. We start each post with a question about a particular word and we unpick, explore and ponder it. Sometimes, we raise more questions than we answer, but it's always interesting to take a closer look.  

Words are also tools that we humans use to make sense of ourselves and what we experience and to fumble our way through the enormous complexity that is our world.

We are fascinated that we humans so often go out of our way to avoid messy reality. Words are our ‘in’ to this tendency, and how and why humans try to avoid facing complex ideas and problems.

Our western culture makes it easy to avoid complexity, contradiction and discomfort. We are encouraged to retreat to our individualist cocoons, float along in a hedonistic haze, opt out entirely, or comfort ourselves with nostalgia for a past that never really was.

We love looking at words to highlight the contradictions, the confusion, and the need for coherence that make up human psychology and culture. We try to grapple with the world as it is: complex, awe inspiring, mind boggling, messy, and humility inducing.

Finally, words are tools that can be used against us, to defraud us. At the personal level, sometimes the discussion around a topic can become clouded with emotionally loaded words, and our thinking and communication can stall through lack of useful and clarifying alternatives. At the broadest level, propaganda or deliberately slippery, shoddy words can be used by people in power to trick, distract or disempower us.

So, in sum, we are motivated to explore words to seek clarity about ‘what is’, and why ‘what otherwise might be’ is not. Wordy explorations of 'Why is it so?'

Luckily this means there is are endless topics.

In each post we might explore: 

• words as the vehicle we use to think, reason and communicate complex ideas - by examining words, we can be clearer and more precise in our thinking and communication with others
• words as artefacts of human society - by exploring how words are used, we can better understand the human world
• words as tools we use - by being thoughtful in how we construct and use words, we can have our desired impact the human world
• words as tools that can be used against us - by being vigilant to the misuse and abuse of words, we can become more purposeful and intentional actors on our various stages throughout life and avoid being merely the props or background in someone else's play.

Word are our vehicle, our artefacts and our tools to create a coherent sense of ourselves and our world. Our words allow us to reflect on, integrate and share our experiences and our understanding. Our words allow us to impact the world. 

We think words deserve a bit of thought!

Click to enlarge

Wondering: Did Stealers Wheel come up with the famous quote above? 

It's a bit hard to read, but a version of this saying was written on back of their first album released in 1972 album.

"We know that you believe you understand what you think we said, but we are not sure you realize that what you heard is not what we meant." 

No one really knows for sure.

Anyway, we'd rather be 'stuck in the middle with you' Stealers Wheel than any of the various other people who have been given the credit for this clever saying.