It is almost a “game over” advantage when you really get a handle on the role Wordism in human affairs.
It is like those Hendrix lyrics. “Is this life or is this confusion?”
I have become amazed, as I have come to understand Wordism, how many intelligent people are drawn into its snare.
We are trained in the nuances of the word “cat”. We attend expensive coursework and become learned experts by studying tomes that are full of textured observations on the subject of “catness”. We then subject ourselves to examinations and confer diplomas and licenses upon ourselves certifying our expertise on “cat”.
But what we fail to do is look directly at that four-legged fury product of nature sitting on the window ledge and to think through the damn creature on our own.
If you can’t explain anything simply, you don’t have a handle on it.
But Wordism is “motivated” by those with a vested interest in confusion. This goes way beyond politics.
For example, Microsoft killed knowledge of data architecture (if Microsoft is anything, it is an educational institution and a heavy contributor to computer science programs) for the purpose of promoting the use of its proprietary database products.
Our society pays heavily for this for it is “motivated dereliction”, a vested interest in ignorance, promoted by the commercial self-interest of Microsoft.
Today, even the commissions of the regulators responsible for America’s accounting and auditing standards, under the authority of the Securities and Exchange Commission, are completely ignorant of data architecture, making accounting and auditing standards ineffective, unnecessarily expensive (to the delight of the big CPA firms), and misdirected. It’s a case of the blind leading the blind.
This suits the crooks just fine. Hence, we have a huge banking crises owing to out of control fraud and embezzlement and we have accounting and auditing “reforms” that have no hope of containing it, for there are too few people with any real knowledge of HOW to contain it.
See how it all relates?
#1 by shari on 03/14/2008 - 11:00 am
” If you can’t explain anything simply, you don’t have a handle on it.” Amen to that!
#2 by AFKAN on 03/15/2008 - 10:58 pm
I have been thinking a lot more about Wordism in practice as of late, and I have been skimming Hayakawa for a little more depth.
The ability of Language to act of structure Consciousness – the Created controlling the Creator – is truly amazing. The control of visual symbols – look closely at Fox News for example, including issues of hue and chroma – and you see that it moves beyond inducing passivity, to controlling you while you are passive.
I like Dave’s continuing discussion on data architectures. Back in the day, data structures and data architecture were the required course for all of the Computer Science guys.
The use of Financial XML, for example, would make a lot of contemporary regulatory systems rather superfluous.
Ironically, currency is now pretty much digital, and with good cause. Pennies now cost more than a penny to produce, and nickels cost more than a nickel to produce.
There DOES seem to be a “shortage” of pennies, at this time, and a friend of mine noted they seem to have gone to China, where, as already refined copper, they could be converted to copper products that would add yet greater wealth to China.
A totally digital currency would seem to be well on its way.
And that’s for openers.
“Insurmountable Opportunities” await!