Headlines, ingress and pictures give me a guideline to
what will be the talk of the day.
For some time now, when I read the news, I have found
myself not really paying
attention to the news as such; I pay more attention to the language
used.
I first noticed that more and more often the headlines
are misleading… in the sense they are boosted to catch your eye, rather than
tell what the story is actually about. Then I started picking up on the choice of words different journalists tend to prefer.
The thing about trifle details which are part of
everyday doings, and that you see, read or hear on a regular basis and never
pay any attention to, is that once you DO notice them; they overshadow the
general main impression or experience.
Like… the ticking of an alarm clock. You don’t hear
it, not really, as it steadily goes tic-tac while waiting for the right time to
wake you up. But then, one night, you lay in bed trying to fall asleep, and
there it is: “tic-tac-tic…” and your entire you gets so absorbed with the sound
it makes you alert and all hope of getting some sleep is lost.
There is a good chance I am more than just a little
weirde; but that resembles my attitude and
relation to words.
I pay attention
to words, I believe that words have the power to catalyze
action. I think you can say just about anything, preventing you choose your
words right. Even the
worst insult can be presented so eloquently it is hard to
be offended.
Subconsciously I think we all, to some degree, pick up
on these nuances and react to the impact of the words we are exposed to. How
you speak or write makes a difference.
When we were presented to news before, we used to
discuss issues regarding the event or situation in question. Now we more and more often discuss not the
event or situation itself, but
social issues the journalist chose to indicate.
If the article
add the phrase “ of foreign descent”, we are instantly led astray to not concern
ourselves with what happened… we tend to be preoccupied with all the foreigners
who have come to our country causing nothing but trouble: Regardless of why,
who or how. We generalize and pull them all down.
Instead of
mending our society by focusing and trying to fix what is wrong with the
system, we are lured into brand marking people; blaming what is wrong on
everyone else. It makes us say out loud that our society would be so much
better if only we stuck to our own kind, even though we don’t actually think
so.
It is sad we are
not updated on news without language misguidance, which distracts us.
Maybe this is why
we tend to engage less in our local community: we have learned there is such a
thing as us and them: Children’s sports teams lack coaches. The Salvation Army
lacks volunteers. The Red Cross miss volunteers…. The list is close to endless.
Instead of getting involved, spending time healing what is wrong, but by doing
that expose ourselves and perhaps prove ourselves vulnerable: we focus more and
more on our own comfort, and feel smug about ourselves because, after all, WE
are decent people. And while we do so, we criticize what a bad coach our
daughter has to deal with, we don’t even think about what an effort he/she
makes for our precious offspring.
Very seldom do we
give thanks. Hardly ever do we care to tell what is right or well. We adopt the
lingo from the medias where we hardly hear, see or read anything good (and if
we do, it usually involves an infant or an animal… the two groups still
pardoned from our negativity).
Far too often the
weak, and yet exposed, groups of people in society are even further degraded…
or we enhance the prejudices they already suffer from.
I am old enough
to remember when a fight was won when the opponent lay on the ground. Today I
have this feeling a fight is about getting your opponent to the ground so you
can really hit and kick him properly. Words can do that as well.
I believe we all
really want to understand, and we wish things were different… and to the
better. To do that, we need to know the full story. We need to be allowed to
make up our minds on issues, not on people or groups of people. We can’t make
it a matter about whether we like or dislike individuals
We often
experience the fourth estate, undeliberately, take side, choosing to tell the
part of the story which serves their agenda or cause the best: making money by
creating malcontent feelings. (Yes, being negative is a very strong drive in
most of us. In example: negativity is such a strong emotion it takes 100
compliments to make up for 1 critisism.) When others are as bad as can be, we,
the rest, are great! Sadly, that only inspires aggression and a dividing of
people: us and them.
Looking at
history that was never a good strategy to keep a society sound and healthy.
