ALLIES ON THE JOURNEY
  • HOME
  • OFFERINGS
    • Spiritual Direction
    • Integrative Leadership For Men (IL4M): 2-Year Program >
      • IL4M December Retreat
      • IL4M Retreat Registration
    • Pilgrimage to Uganda
    • Center for Purposeful Leadership - Collaborators on The Journey
  • ALLIES
    • Terry Chapman
    • Carolyn Baker
    • Claudia Eisinger
    • Tom McSteen
    • Craig Neal
    • Patricia Neal
    • Caleb Rukundo
    • Jan and Jeff Steckley
  • JOURNEY
    • Overview
    • Orientation
    • Sharing Your Story >
      • The Invitation
      • 1st Threshold: Loved - Worthy
    • Opening Mind and Heart >
      • 2nd Threshold: Held - Encouraged
    • Encountering the Sacred >
      • 3rd Threshold: Sent - Gifted
    • Co-Creating Destiny >
      • 4th Threshold: Return - Renewed
    • 7 Guiding Questions for Journaling
  • Musings
  • Resources
    • The Journey Guide (IL4M)
    • IL4M - A Season of Discernment
    • March 2020 Purposeful Leadership in Disruptive Times
    • May 2020 Purposeful Leadership in Disruptive Times
    • Spring 2020 The Journey of Grief Learning Platform
    • Practices
    • Emerging Social Technologies
  • CONNECT
  • MARKETPLACE

latest inspirations            

WORDS COUNT

6/11/2016

0 Comments

 

“Human beings do not live in the objective world alone, nor alone in the world of social activity as ordinarily understood, but are very much at the mercy of the particular language which has become the medium of expression for their society,” the linguist Edward Sapir writes. 

It is quite an illusion to imagine that one adjusts to reality essentially without the use of language and that language is merely an incidental means of solving specific problems of communication or reflection. The fact of the matter is that the “real world” is to a large extent unconsciously built up on the language habits of the group. . . . We see and hear and otherwise experience very largely as we do because the language habits of our community predispose certain choices of interpretation.

Our inability, as citizens, to influence power in a system of corporate or inverted totalitarianism, along with the loss of our civil liberties, weakens the traditional political vocabulary of a capitalist democracy. The descent of nearly half the country into poverty or near-poverty diminishes the effectiveness of the rhetoric about limitless growth and ceaseless material progress. It undermines the myth of American prosperity. The truths are dimly apparent. But we have yet to sever ourselves from the old way of speaking and formulate a new language to explain us to ourselves. Until this happens, the corporate state can harness the old language like a weapon and employ the institutions of power and organs of state security to perpetuate itself.

____

Resistance, as Berkman points out, is first about learning to speak differently and abandoning the vocabulary of the “rational” technocrats who rule. Once we discover new words and ideas through which to perceive and explain reality, we free ourselves from neoliberalism, which functions, as Benjamin knew, like a state religion. This effort will take place outside the boundaries of popular culture and academia, where the deadening weight of the dominant ideology curtails creativity and independent thought.

Hedges, Chris (2015-05-12). Wages of Rebellion (p. 70). Nation Books. Kindle Edition. 

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Notes for the Way

    This is a space for  Journey Guides to post "field notes" and observations along the path.

    Archives

    May 2022
    January 2021
    December 2020
    October 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    October 2019
    May 2019
    February 2019
    November 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    December 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

We Would Love to Hear from you Soon!  
 Contact Us​

    Stay current with Allies news!

Subscribe to Newsletter
© 2021 ALLIESONTHEJOURNEY.COM ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
  • HOME
  • OFFERINGS
    • Spiritual Direction
    • Integrative Leadership For Men (IL4M): 2-Year Program >
      • IL4M December Retreat
      • IL4M Retreat Registration
    • Pilgrimage to Uganda
    • Center for Purposeful Leadership - Collaborators on The Journey
  • ALLIES
    • Terry Chapman
    • Carolyn Baker
    • Claudia Eisinger
    • Tom McSteen
    • Craig Neal
    • Patricia Neal
    • Caleb Rukundo
    • Jan and Jeff Steckley
  • JOURNEY
    • Overview
    • Orientation
    • Sharing Your Story >
      • The Invitation
      • 1st Threshold: Loved - Worthy
    • Opening Mind and Heart >
      • 2nd Threshold: Held - Encouraged
    • Encountering the Sacred >
      • 3rd Threshold: Sent - Gifted
    • Co-Creating Destiny >
      • 4th Threshold: Return - Renewed
    • 7 Guiding Questions for Journaling
  • Musings
  • Resources
    • The Journey Guide (IL4M)
    • IL4M - A Season of Discernment
    • March 2020 Purposeful Leadership in Disruptive Times
    • May 2020 Purposeful Leadership in Disruptive Times
    • Spring 2020 The Journey of Grief Learning Platform
    • Practices
    • Emerging Social Technologies
  • CONNECT
  • MARKETPLACE