I am at a diversity conference this week, and there was a discussion about how words create reality. That is, when we label people, the divisiveness then becomes reality.

Similarly, in my work, I've noticed that when people keep saying something over and over, it suddenly becomes reality, even though it's not true. For example, over and over I hear that we shouldn't sent out too many emails, and other communication, to our members because they are overwhelmed with communication. Yet, when we've conducted comprehensive surveys of our members' satisfaction, they almost unimously state (90% of them) that they receive the right amount of communication from us (not too much; not too little). However, the evidence doesn't help; I keep hearing, in meeting after meeting, from our administration that we are sending too many emails to our members. Stating that fact has become reality.

If words can create reality like this, is there anything that we can do to reverse that?

quote:

Originally posted by Kalleh:
Stating that fact has become reality.

Is it "fact?" If it's indeed "fact," then for you is IS real. It seems to me that your administrators are trying to get you to buy into their version of a popular myth. Smacks of Chomsky's "popular illusions."

Hmm, I think I know of some pols running for office who have been boning up on their Chomsky...

Words most certainly do create reality. Take a look at the recent financial problems in both the US and the UK. The practice of short selling relies on words creating reality. Start a rumour that even the largest company is failing and just watch the share prices plummet. I have some HBOS shares that I was given years ago (all people with savings in HBOS got some). I have about 600. Words created the reality that that I have just lost about five grand.

quote:

The practice of short selling relies on words creating reality.

No more than buying does. In fact, judging from my inbox, much less.

It just goes to show how important it is to write and get published. I suspect people, and organizations, who publish more come off looking like experts, even though those who don't write as much are more expertise. I am not sure how to test that, though.

Even if words don't create reality, they certainly create belief.

Every single religion, present and past, has been created by nothing more than the words of humankind.

Amen, brother! Now let's go kill the infidels who don't believe it!

quote:

Even if words don't create reality, they certainly create belief.

That's been true since the Third Reich.

quote:

That's been true since the Third Reich.

And before it.

New Testament .. John 1:1 ... "In the beginning was the word and .....

the Third Reich

There's an great book on the language of the Third Reich by a linguist, Professor Victor Klemperer, called Lingua Tertii Imperii: Notizbuch eines Philologen (translated into English as The Language of the Third Reich: A Philologist's Notebook). It was published in 1947, but consists of notes written between 1933 and 1945. He was related to Otto and Werner Klemperer, the famous German conductor and his son, the US actor.

Has the book been translated into English? It sound fascinating.

Has the book been translated into English? It sound fascinating.

Yes, and it's still in print (link).

This message has been edited. Last edited by: zmježd,

One of the most impressive and far-reaching examples of how words create reality is in the War On Drugs in the USA.

"Law may be rooted in fiction as well as fact. Indeed, a public policy conceived in ignorance may be continuously reaffirmed, ever more vehemently, so long as its origins remain obscure or its fallacy unexposed."
link

..... AND ... link

quote:

Originally posted by jerry thomas:
One of the most impressive and far-reaching examples of how words create reality is in the War On Drugs in the USA.

Actually regardless of your position on drugs this is a very good example.

"War on...(abstract noun)" has taken on the status of a snowclone. We have seen War on Drugs, War on Terror, War on Crime, War on Waste, War on Inefficiency etc. and every single one of those phrases is creating a false analogy. They are giving the impression that it is possible to wage a war against a concept. To take just one of them: you might wage war against criminals but you cannot wage war against crime. Of course what happens is that by setting up such a false analogy you can justify almost anything in its name. If you had a war on criminals you would have to act against criminals. If you have a war on crime you could then justify draconian measures against all individuals on the grounds that you need to take those measures to prevent crime.
It is one of the most pernicious examples of doublespeak of modern times.

You did not mention one of the silliest (and i think earliest) examples, the War on Poverty.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Valentine,

To go with the theme, Words create reality, I don't know if anyone remembers Johnny Carson telling a joke about there being a shortage of toilet paper. There actually wasn't -- it was a joke. But many people hearing his monologue apparently thought he was serious and, within hours, there was a run (pardon the expression) on paper all over the US. Words created a (false) reality.

And then there was Orson Welles' famous War of the Worlds broadcast in the late '30s which made a lot of people believe the end was nigh.

quote:

Words created a (false) reality.

Is that not an oxymoron? A reality can't be false and still be real.

The universal reality was that paper was not in short supply. But for those who believed it was unavailable, hoarding what was around created a localized reality, which was, in the universal sense, false. Perhaps it is oxymoronic to those outside but not to believers. In fact, while this occurred almost twenty years ago, I am only now down to my last three cases.

I came across a case of political correctness carried to an extreme. In an article discussing a tennis clinic in New York, the author mentioned the techniques used for teaching disabled and non-disabled kids. I wondered who the non-disabled kids could be and eventually worked out that they are normal. Apparently "able-bodied" is no longer used to describe normality.

quote:

teaching disabled and non-disabled kids.

Why not just "kids"? If special methods for teaching disabled kids need to be given, by all means mention them, but surely some ways stay the same for all kids?

I'm not keen on using "normal" in this context. That implies disabled people are abnormal, which has negative connotations. Disability is normal, too. However, "non-disabled" is just an unnecessarily roundabout way of saying "able".

Sigh. As the mom of 2 "learning-disabled" kids-- one of whom has two chronic medical conditions-- I am cynical. "Words create reality" is the fond hope and belief of politicians, marketing firms, and purveyors of products everywhere. To wit, the pathologizing of behavior which does not fall within increasingly tyrannical, prescriptive standards[DSM-IV anyone?]. If one may judge from percentage of kids [of well-off American parents obviously] who see shrinks and/or take meds due to diagnosed "disability", "normal" is quickly becoming abnormal.

Then there's the flip side. If you are unlucky enough to suffer from a condition which the medical establishment cannot yet successfully treat-- and for which the pharmas can offer no FDA-approved med-- there are no words for you. You have no currency. Like cancer patients of yesteryear, your illness is not spoken of, and its reality is ignored.

quote:

"non-disabled" is just an unnecessarily roundabout way of saying "able".

My point exactly.

'Twas reality that created words.

quote:

Originally posted by zmježd:
'Twas reality that created words.

Really?

Really?

Closer than the other way round. The verb create is probably not the best word in this case, but the sentiment holds.

Without getting into a political discussion (please?!), I found this radio report relevant to this thread: The US government had been talking about a "bailout" for the banks. However, now that congress has mixed in, they don't want to call it a "bailout;" "working it out" is much better terminology for it, they say. Talk about words creating reality!

Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that words create perceptions and perceptions create reality.

quote:

The US government had been talking about a "bailout" for the banks. However, now that congress has mixed in, they don't want to call it a "bailout;" "working it out" is much better terminology for it, they say.

"Redistribution of wealth from the careful ones that earned and saved it, to the careless and profligate ones that wasted it" might be a more accurate term!

In years gone by we heard the term, "voodoo economics." I wonder if any of the money manipulators really know what they're doing, or if the whole world of finance isn't a chimera that people believe to be real. When someone believes in voodoo, one can be scared to death by a magical incantation.

"Another mental tendency of the same general type is the one observed among the speakers of many languages to equate the word with the deed. Once the thing is stated to have happened or be happening (“The Arab nation has begun to restore its former glory”), it is pyschologically considered as having happened, with the equally psychological corollary that nothing more need be done about it. This time the word is equated with an action or process rather than with an object. The result is different but we again have the phenomenon of the spoken word being paired off with reality." Mario Pei, The Story of Language, p. 287

Politics is a good example of this principle. Many candidates call themselves "reformers" or "not part of the system" when the actual facts show their assertion is blatantly false.

To illustrate, this morning's paper told of a new billboard sign off Route 95 which says, "Transform Rhode Island." Then a line about (paraphrased) "Time for change."
Sounds like someone wants to replace our governor, doesn't it? Not quite. It's his ad. He's already had four-and-a-half years to make a transformation and enact change but this is his new reality.

It is not his ad.

TransformRI was formed by people who want to transform RI. Some, at least, are Governor Carcieri supporters. The Governor himself is not a part of the group, though he may have contributed money.

And in any case, he has been trying to transform RI for the entire time he has been in office, but has not been able to make much headway against the very heavily entrenched interests. He has, for example, been hobbled by Democratic majorities in both Houses that are able to over-ride his vetos with ease, most notably the Budgets in 2006 and 2007. He does not have a line-item veto.

His recent battles with public sector unions are another example.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Valentine,

I have no interest in engaging in political wrangles here. I used the ad only as an example of words creating a new reality.

Nor do I. The purpose of what I said was to disagree with your contention that a new reality was being created by words.

This just in .... from the Department of Useless Information ..... "white" gets 1.17 billion ghits and "black" gets 1.84 billion ghits (without the quotation marks)

Do you think politicians don't know that words create reality?

Many of those who had pushed for the "bail-out" are now calling it a "rescue plan" and those favoring it have gone from 10 percent to 50.

It's not just politicians who create reality with words. I've seen it in all walks of life, particularly the workplace. One example I've seen in my place is that once, a long time ago, one customer (a loud complainer) said she was receiving too much email from us. Suddenly we were warned not to send as many emails. Bundle what you send, we're told (which, by the way, many of our customers hated because they'd receive these long emails with tons of attachments). Some of our employees were even told they couldn't send any emails without "permission" first.

Then we conducted a comprehensive study of customer satisfaction, using surveys, focus groups and phone interviews. Guess what? A great majority said they received just the right number of emails. However, even now we're told..."Be careful. You know how our customers think we send them too many emails!" That comprehensive study has meant nothing. The words, from one measly customer, years ago, have created the reality that all our customers think we send too many emails. Forget the overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

That, of course, is just one example.

quote:

The words, from one measly customer, years ago, have created the reality that all our customers think we send too many emails. Forget the overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

As I think I said once before, those words had created a belief, not a reality.

Of course, once sufficient numbers of people subscribe to a belief then, despite evidence to the contrary, many will assume that this belief is reality. Indeed, I have found that the strongest beliefs are often those for which there is the weakest evidence.

But when people act on those beliefs they alter reality. If people believe there is going to be a bread shortage, there will be a bread shortage because some people will act on that belief and buy up all the bread. The words created the perception, people acted on it and created the reality.

quote:

But when people act on those beliefs they alter reality.

Of course. In some instances this can happen. But it's the acting on the belief that created the reality, not the words or the belief itself.

Many people believe that a favourite sports team is the world's finest - but that doesn't make them so. Only the teams performance, or lack of it, will decide that.

"Words create reality" is close, but I think RE is right that there's an intermediate step-- belief. Words are the medium by which ideas are transmitted. If the idea catches on-- i.e., people believe in the idea expressed by the words-- the eventual consensus is that the idea is "true", or expresses a reality. Once everyone you know behaves as though X is real, as both Bob and RE are saying, they begin altering their behavior in ways which create the reality.

Here is my favorite story about words becoming reality.

quote:

As I think I said once before, those words had created a belief, not a reality.

As often happens here, I believe that is splitting hairs. My example, most certainly, was that her words created the reality that was implemented in my workplace. If you want to say the words created the belief that created the reality, so be it. But I don't even see the point in that argument.

It probably is splitting a hair, but in this case RE's split hair ( ) helped me think of the issue as "belief creates reality" which taps into a lot of psychological & philosophical writing-- which convinced me of your original thesis!

I think this website is a figment of my imagination.

quote:

If you want to say the words created the belief that created the reality, so be it. But I don't even see the point in that argument.

But it is the whole point. What is reality? Simply having a load of people suggesting that a particular thing is real, doesn't make it real to my mind. Reality happens only when there is sufficient uncontrovertible evidence to show that it is more likely than not to be true.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Richard English,

quote:

I think this website is a figment of my imagination.

With Richard's last point about "What is reality?", I think it's a figment of my imagination, too. It sounds like philosophy class: Who am I?

Sometimes I feel as though I am going around and around in circles, which reminds me of a funny story I heard in a presentation. The faculty member presenting a talk put the title of the talk into Google to see what came up. Guess what the number 1 site was? The brochure stating the title of her presentation!

Okay, Richard, think of it this way. I started this thread, and here is what I meant. Oftentimes when people say something again and again (e.g., labeling people or that our company sends too many emails or whatever), suddenly it no longer is just opinion or belief, but it turns into reality, such that decisions begin to be made based on that new "reality," which often isn't really reality.

Yes, this happens politically, and I saw it happen tonight in the debates. However, it also happens in real life, as I hope I have shown.

quote:

but it turns into reality, such that decisions begin to be made based on that new "reality," which often isn't really reality.

If the new reality isn't really reality, then it's belief, not reality.

And I agree that many people act on the basis of their beliefs, no matter how unfounded, but that still doesn't make their beliefs reality; it just makes them strong beliefs.

Every single one of the world's many religions, past and present, has been created by humankind without there being a single shred of evidence that any one of them is true. But that doesn't stop millions of people acting in extreme ways in support of their own particular religious belief, and stating that their deity, and only their deity, is the one real deity.

quote:

Originally posted by Richard English:
Every single one of the world's many religions, past and present, has been created by humankind without there being a single shred of evidence that any one of them is true.

Yes, but... ever notice how science develops in the same way? We gather physical evidence. We hypothesize as to why things should be that way. We predict, test, confirm. At that point "belief" becomes "reality." Based on "reality", we then logically posit-- let's say, the existence of a nuclear particle we have not yet 'seen.' Next comes the development of the equipment necessary to 'see'-- to prove the existence of the hypothesized particle. It may take a decade, but eventually-- surprise, there it is!

Funny how belief creates reality isn't it.