WordPlay

My desire for ideological dominance is natural and human. However, reality envelopes all things, sometimes crushing, sometimes gently smothering. It washes away my little map of life. What lasts, is what connects with reality.

It is easy to forget that words are not reality. They can be shaped by us and formed like clay by us, where reality exists outside of our control.

Words are merely symbols (names) we have created for things we see and feel. We all know there is a reality that exists beyond the scope of words and other symbols. That is what science, religion, love, politics, and all the rest of our life is about; searching for that reality and trying to draw a more accurate picture of that reality, so we can make ourselves closer to it. Can we be blamed for confusing the symbols of reality, for reality itself?

Words lack precision. No matter how much we try to define them and limit their usage, they get away and create their own usage. We forget they are only tools to be used to exchange ideas and feelings. They have no shape, meaning or reality on their own, they only gain meaning through usage. Words can not confine us or define us. They are fragile and amorphous things. The same word will often mean a dozen different things depending on who is hearing that word, who is using that word or how someone pronounces a word.

Words can also divert us from a rational decision making process, just as they can also help with that process. They are often tools of ideological resentment. Weapons which can instigate actions driven by a desire to dominant the lives of others. They can also be the brushes and pens which communicate needs and desires, or the brushes and pens used to draw pictures of reality without the need for ideological dominance.

In this section I explore a few different words, their current usage and try to strip away some of the many layers of reflexive usage.

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