Dear readers!
Hope you are doing well in this summer. It’s been the most brutal summer, yet. In fact it’s the least dangerous of what’s to come. Hold tight for the rains. It’ll be worth it.
There were a lot of things I wanted to write about. How afternoons are my favourite time of the day (not so these days). How reading good books can deeply impact your life. I wanted to write about the film Three of Us. But alas, I couldn’t. Blame it on my severe lack of dedication to writing or just a general lack of ability to put together words.
In my journey with words I have found a direct relation between language and thought. I have always been fascinated by language. I keep saying “what we say is how we think, and how we think is how we speak”. Which is why words are of utmost importance to me. They are the fundamental tools of experiencing reality and making meaning of it.
There isn’t any such thing as thinking. There isn’t even any such thing as experience…that cannot exist apart from language.
— John Searle on Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Theory of Language
Ludwig Wittgenstein has been one major thinker whose ideas have greatly impacted the way I understand language. Something resonates so deeply about his ideas that it has shaped a great deal of how I interact with the world. He basis language as the building blocks of thought.
The structure of the language determines what we think of as reality. We can’t think of the world, we can’t discuss the world, we can’t have a conception of the world, independent of the conceptual apparatus that we use for that purpose.
— John Searle on Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Theory of Language
Another idea of Wittgenstein that I’d like to share is the picture theory of meaning. To quote John Searle again:
The structure of reality had to determine the structure of language. Unless language mirrored reality in some way, it would be impossible for sentences to mean.
We are able to talk about reality not just because we use words that mean something, but because those words have a relationship to each other within a sentence that corresponds to the relationship that things have to each other in the world.
The reason I am talking about these concepts today is because I have been struggling with words off-lately. This isn’t to say that one must stop talking about things they find indescribable. This is to bring attention to the massive abyss like gap that has formed between language and reality. I started noticing this when certain words began to loose all their meaning. Words like justice, humanity, civilised, law and order.
I think this past year has radicalised me in ways I cannot express. The realities that I have witnessed have left me speechless, in the most deepest sense of that word. What’s happening in Palestine and Gaza for the last 8 months has pushed language to its very limits for me. It feels like there’s no connection between reality and the language I have to describe and in turn experience that reality.
I don’t think language was ever meant to capture a reality so dystopic, brutal, and violent. And this reality goes beyond the Palestinian reality. We have become a society of violence. Colonialism never left us. It stayed in varying forms and shapes. And now there is no way for us to look away from it. Colonialism is staring at us with eyes wide open. Together with capitalism, it surrounds us.
And so, the language of the coloniser and the capitalist has taken over us. A language of violence, destruction, brutality, oppression, hatred, and dehumanisation. A language that denies, restricts, controls, and upholds binaries. It is not a language of the people, or communities. Heck, it isn’t even a language that’s natural. It’s a language of a minority group of power hungry and greedy people. Those who use language to deny and defy, to change and erase what’s natural and indigenous. Those who use language as a tool to normalise their systems.
Countless examples come to mind. Even after tens of thousands of people killed, permanently injured, or in rubble, one million internally displaced people, forced famine, 60% residential areas, and 80% commercial facilities destroyed, more bombs dropped than in World War II, massacres after massacres, hospitals after hospitals bombed and bulldozed, largest population of child amputees in history…the world STILL has the audacity to disregard and deny this reality. The leader of the world’s most powerful nation STILL has the audacity to say that the perpetrator of these crimes has not crossed the red line. And the same narrative is parroted by western media that further normalises this way of things.
Closer to home, the language of violence and hatred has been perfectly normalised by the ruling class. This language has now become the norm. And every major power system has played their part in doing so. The role of legacy media and news channels in spreading hatred and normalising the language of the ruling class is so blatantly out there. Entertainment industry is equally complicit by making Islamophobic, anti-minority, and propaganda ridden films. As a result, we’re at the peak of hate speeches in our country. People no longer think even once before saying something extremely Islamophobic or violent. Because a reality where hatred is normal has been made possible by such language.
All the while climate change denial continues to be strongly prevalent as before.
Two things are happening with me at present. First is the massive gap between reality and the language I have to express and in turn experience that reality. This is creating a tremendous dissonance for me where I almost find myself dissociating from reality. And sometimes all existing efforts to capture this reality appear hollow. My attempts to talk about it feel hollow. And when I see this inadequacy of language, the seriousness of the situation really strikes me. How unnatural this is.
Second is seeing the way language has been hijacked by the oppressor to justify and normalise their systemic oppression. World leaders, people in power, media, all repeating the same narratives that uphold oppressive systems. Through language, they create a reality where violence, brutality, injustice, oppression, hatred, division, and dehumanisation are not only acceptable but normal. And once when we begin to consume that language, we begin to consume the reality this language mirrors. That is what we think is normal, and that is what we experience as normal.
And that's why it’s important to reclaim language. If Wittgenstein says that language is the basis of reality, we must use language that mirrors a new reality. We must resist the oppressor’s language of violence and hatred with language of kindness and love. A language that creates space, that accommodates, that goes beyond binaries, a language that accepts. A language of people, of communities. A language which is natural and indigenous.
We must move past the Western language. Consume language that talks of other worlds. Other kinds of realities. The way is through art. Watch films from other cultures. Read literature and poems from other cultures. Allow yourself to visualise other possibilities of existing. Reading poems from Palestine has brought me closer to their world. There’s an innate kindness, longing, grief, and beauty in these poems, reflective of the unique Palestinian reality.
Red Brocade
– Naomi Shihab Nye
The Arabs used to say,
When a stranger appears at your door,
feed him for three days
before asking who he is,
where he’s come from,
where he’s headed.
That way, he’ll have strength
enough to answer.
Or, by then you’ll be
such good friends
you don’t care.
Let’s go back to that.
Rice? Pine nuts?
Here, take the red brocade pillow.
My child will serve water
to your horse.
No, I was not busy when you came!
I was not preparing to be busy.
That’s the armor everyone put on
to pretend they had a purpose
in the world.
I refuse to be claimed.
Your plate is waiting.
We will snip fresh mint
into your tea.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that there’s resistance in reclaiming language. When we consume, when we speak in other languages, languages of different cultures and values, languages of the oppressed, we are resisting the oppressor’s language. We are saying that we reject your divisive language of violence and hatred. The language you use to normalise a reality where oppression is acceptable. We choose to speak the indigenous language of our communities. And it is through this language that we will create pathways for newer realities.
Sending you grace and love. Until next time.
When Life Gives You Melon
Choose Water over Choly 🍉
Aakash xx
I thought this was beautiful and it resonated with me in a big way.
I've been seeing Gaza and I've been seeing what's happening in India and it's like watching a train crash (it's about to go over the edge of a cliff in Gaza, and it's heading towards crashing in India). Maybe the climate change one is seeing a train carrying on over a precipice, momentum is keeping it in the air and I can see that the passengers and driver haven't realised that there is no more track.
Words often fail me and you have captured (with words!) how my words and senses are currently failing as I see what's going on in the world.
I'm of Indian descent but don't live in India - i was born in the land of the colonisers with mostly only the colniser's languag. A reminder to see the world with different eyes (different words and sensibilities) is always appreciated. Also, that poem is a gem!