Words.

A few thoughts on the subject.

Words

            Language is dead.  Even as I write this forbidden literature, an open dictionary and thesaurus lay beside me, reminding me of words even I, a lover of words, have forgotten.  The street signs are more than just labels for the slummy shops and bazaars littering our dying cities.

            Eat here 4 less

            1 stop shop

            Call 4 service

            Words like “love,” “faith,” “hope,” they no longer exist.  They exist, but only in texts long forgotten, bibles of man’s past.  George Orwell called it “doublespeak,” a dissection of the one thing that separates us from the birds and beasts.

            The conversations that consume our daily lives, the words we use, are no more than guttural regurgitations of our actual meanings.  Our meanings, what are they?  Language is a pathway to the mind, and when the path becomes void of life, what does that mean about the mind?

            Where r u?

            Who r u?

            Who m i?

            Y does it have to b this way?

            It began with text messaging, the dawn of the digital age.  Mankind didn’t realize it at the time, but we were dumbing ourselves down with our electronic conversation.  We were isolating ourselves, entire families sitting down for dinner and not saying a word to each other, classes learning lessons at their own homes, connecting to each other through online video-conferences. 

            Everywhere you turn these days, television screens and video cameras stare back at us, ever-watching, ever-listening.  The word has become obsolete.  Language is obsolete.  Society has turned away from the sentence, damning to extinction, and with it imagination.

            With the passing of words came the passing of literature, and with that, came the passing of intelligence.

            Learning became a form of hypnosis, the talking heads on the morning news, the evening news, our soap operas, our dramas, all smiling, all laughing, everyone having a good time, it started making me sick, sick to my stomach and possibly sick in the head. 

            I started looking for means of escape; I spent hours in my father’s library, which would become mine with his passing, reading over page after page, trying to discern where it all went wrong, and why we let it happen.  The Internet became a source of misinformation for me, and I spent my time at work and during my sleepless nights trying to decipher the lies surrounding me.

            “What’s wrong with the world?” 

            I used that question to test my surroundings, the people I spent every day with.

            “Nothing’s wrong, you’re just worrying too much.”

            At least, that’s what it should’ve looked like, but I couldn’t help but read those words in my mind like this:

            “Nthng’s” wrng, ur just wrryng 2 much.”

            After someone had spoken those words to me, I lost all hope in their sanity.  After awhile, I began questioning my own sanity.  It was only natural, what with my own personage being the only one thinking the things being thought.

            I scoured the Internet even more, but now searching for fellow lunatics, possible comrades who may in some way provide me with answers or comfort.

            The average reading-level in America is now at an 8^th grade level.  Journalists and News reporters are deliberately taught to read and write their articles at a minimal level, discouraging viewers from progressing their personal vocabularies.

            Whether it was intentional by some black ops organization, or just human stupidity, it’s happening, and there’s nothing we can do to stem the tide but hope that our own children and their children’s children will reverse the effects and save the only thing that makes us human… our ability to communicate on such acute levels our feelings, thoughts, and dreams.

            Innovation

            Affection

            Curiosity

            Determination

            Originality

            Perspective

            Consciousness…

            Ambiguity

            We have stepped out of our bounds, destroying something more sacred than any prophet or parable in the history of the world.  We are destroying our own humanity, and we are letting it happen willingly.

           

           

            

Author's Note

I know my language isn't perfect, but that's why I write. To bring myself as close to perfection as is humanly possible. To expand my own knowledge and my own vocabulary. To try to be as human as possible.

Reviews

[KeelyJane]

Profound and true. The ingredients for perfect penning.

[John]

Thank you so much... this review was just enough motivation to keep me moving along on my current project.

[KeelyJane]

:)

[CHRIS ANDES]

well, you have the words of wit
:)

[A. H. Pinley]

I like what you have to say on this topic. Would you say that we as humans have grown lazy with technology and the media's help?

[Cecilia Marie]

This is so brutally honest! Intellentuals are rare finds these days.

[John]

Thank you.

[Harley Rose]

This is absolutely true... I thought I was the only one who saw this happening!

[John]

You are not alone, you are far from it. Seek us out, we're the people you would think least-likely to believe.