No two words are alike any more than two people are alike. However, what has struck me in the first few weeks of teaching Genesis this semester is just how noticeably language shares, or reflects, the very Fall which Genesis describes. I don’t necessarily mean that words are inherently sinful nor that they suffer from Total Depravity, my Calvinist friends, only this: the Fall has stacked the deck of language against us. One need only take the pulse of one’s reaction when one hears the word "love" compared to hearing the word "hate". The latter word has bite – it affects us more and we pay more attention to it. Similarly, if I say something "stinks", I’m more likely to garner attention than if I say that it’s "fragrant". Why is that words with negative or even evil associations capture our attention or make us feel more powerfully? Why is it, moreover, that a single phrase can ruin a person’s day while a paragraph of healing words has half the equivalent positive effect? In fiction, the same phenomenon obtains – villains appear much more interesting to watch than angels. Virtue, as seen in people or as expressed in words, seems limp-wristed. Of course, the fault lies primarily not in the words, but ourselves; nevertheless, certain words have an edge to them which makes them tools employed more frequently.
Combine this sad fact with the Tower of Babel and we’re really in a fix. On the one hand, negative language has more initial potency than positive language; on the other, language itself seems a poor servant in its task. Babel reminds us that the calamity of language is not merely different vocabulary and different national languages, but the confusion of thought itself. It is not only words which cannot be translated from one language to another, it is our very thoughts. Were, God forbid, the UN to establish an universal language so that we all spoke the same dialect, Babel would still sit smugly laughing at our efforts to communicate. An hour’s conversation with one’s own parent reveals the terrifying fact that we can speak an identical vocabulary and still be worlds apart. No one can ever fully understand us nor can one ever fully communicate.
If I stress the calamitous effects of Sin on Language, it is only because our class made it through Genesis, but just around the corner of the syllabus is Pentecost in Acts, which is a marvelous undoing of the spell of Babel.
Nicodemus
Maybe our strong reactions to negative words is a basic instinct to protect ourselves. If we hear "hate" we equate it with danger or aggression so we'd better wake up in case we need to fight or flee! What's more disturbing is that we no longer respond to words of affirmation. I suspect that we are so saturated with flattery ("darling, you look FABulous"!) that we've completely tuned out. This is really easy to see in children who are given constant praise in an effort to build their self esteem. They soon learn that these apparently kind words are meaningless and they are no longer encouraged by them. Adults are the same if we are so concerned with being liked that we never tell each other the truth.
Posted by: Philomena | August 31, 2006 at 01:47 PM
Wow...I've never really thought about it but somehow must've thought the same subconsciously. It wasn't until I read this little tidbit that I thought "you know he's right".
Great blog!
Posted by: spacekicker | August 31, 2006 at 02:50 PM
If a person visits a foreign country what are the first words they learn?
Your right the fall has infected every aspect of the human race including language, culture, the arts.
Acts does undo the damage.
Posted by: Ron's Bloviating | August 31, 2006 at 10:04 PM