Thought and speech

Regenerative Culture Language & Oral Tradition
#1

Many people on this board seem to be interested in changing their language to make it less “civilised”. What do you think about changing the language to improve our thought process as well?

That is, to have different words for various meanings which in modern English are described with the same word. The double conditional, for example.
We say;
‘If you clean your room you can watch television’.
We usually mean;
‘If you clean your room you can watch television, and if you don’t clean your room you can’t watch television.’

Of course unless the alternate meanings are enforced they may loose any practical utility, like the way I just butchered “can” and “may”.

#2

you remind me of buckminster fuller. he grew up in a family that spoke of sunsight and sunclipse, rather than sunrise and sunset.

But yes, as far as I discern it, rewilding language is a process of refining and remodelling, with the end result (tho there ARE no ends, only means-processes) being a greater ratio of spoken imagery per synaptic action. I greatly enjoy NLP and literature, as no doubt many readers here do.
Incidentally, I’m reading Don Quixote at the moment. Some memorable expressions include:

As lonely as asparagus

Your eyes lie a league off (your face is so long, i cannot read it)

Like hairs in the sea (of small consequence)

#3

I’d suggest that improving our thought processes means rewilding our language. Seriously.

If you’ve ever gone animal tracking, or made a skin on frame boat, or navigated across unfamiliar landscape (aka wilderness), you’ll know what I mean. Our ancestors had it together, because to not have it together meant kids go hungry, people die, shelters collapse, etc.

Only in the modern era do we have a situation where someone can reward you for stupidity - bureaucracies excel at this, at every level of institutions.

I believe indigenously that we all in our ancestry had language that the wisest and most insightful of us tinkered with endlessly, to fine tune our observations and critical thinking.

What do rocket scientists do when they don’t have rockets to build?

They build MIND ROCKETS!

I don’t know what that means, but hey. Product of civilization and all that.

Anyway, thanks for raising the subject snail and yarrow! And sweet Don Quixote quotes. :slight_smile: