
Brands and What Are We Saying About Ourselves?
Jul 8, 2024
4 min read
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have you ever considered how much of our speech sounds like a transacton? like a sale being made. it occurred to me how with deliberation often we use words whose meanings horrify us in one context, are also used colloquially with reckless abandon. unwise or forgetful that words have power.
a quick interjection here. my grammar isn't entirely perfect or remembered from when i learned it. i do better with spelling snd i make myself understood. often with deliberation i'll slangify words and borrow from languages i'm not fluent in. i stting together words that i intend to be read and interpreted in a certain way, either phonetically or by creative missspelling. whatever i feel it takes to incur the desired effect. in the case of what it relates to. sometimes depth beyond the words in the form of reference, that i hope the reader gets. i even have a name for it; manglish. i say that all to convey the notion that i mean a certain thing and that malice is rarely a part.
what i'm saying is that words are multifaceted and the way we employ them in speech can be far more than they seem at first glance. as in look below the surface or read between the lines. i want to be clear that i use words with intent constantly in full awareness, as much as possible, of how they will land and the effect they'll have on people.
the reason i got to thinking about this was because of the way that various news outlets that discuss the news but aren't strictly news organizations word their chyrons. i understand they need to be eye catching, because i'm talking about places where clicks count.
the thing is, whether we mean to or not, when we speak aloud the words resonate with intent. any emotion we're feeling when we compose something, that feeling will infuse it.
alone, on the stated meaning side, the word is a blunt instrument. we, with strong emotion, particularly those in the lower frequencies of anger vengefulness, regret, lack and jealousy will fill those words. soak them right in and this confers a weight and power to them. what happens
is you're effectively doing an incantation. you know, casting a spell.
the fact that we may not be aware we're doing that thing won't prevent it from making it's effect a reality. there are many of us doing this in very vocal and visible ways. people whose names are well known in the press and pop culture, these unconscious masters of the craft.
these words, so leaden with weight and import get issued into our culture and set off waves. we can see their impact in the way we're affected by them because every thing is shared by us with all of our society where cameras are everywhere. we are also privy to the crush of empathy, when the plans put forth in ill will begin to decay.
eventually rot sets in and the false structures based upon, like lies, cave in upon themselves. onbviously i'm spesking metaphorically, but you can't miss the connectable dots.
every time i see a word like owned in one of those chyron used in bombastic headers on a news related video clip, the old definition comes roaring to mind. of oened people. uncomfortably so with all of the sadness attached to it, from our shared national past of ownership of people.
same goes for the word brand. we brand cattle to identify ownership and i can't help but notice how close chattle is to cattle. we do it to ourselves, which, there's a rabbit hole to dive down another day. but personally, i can't think of a single reason to paste that kind of emblem upon myself. to each his own.
of course i realize that's in the past but i can look past the say spray of obnoxious verbiage coming from some of our most prominent political leaders and govern-ors. behind all of t h e ploitical arm waving and gymnastics being deployed to distract us from the current ways the rest of us, the average citizens from being hemmed in. by limiting our access to everything we need to survive, or under the ever restricting circs, thrive. to live as we wish, unmolested.
all of that's what's called my attention, made me watch what i say. here's a piece of unsolicited advice, watch what you say. you know, if you care.
if there's any confusion on the hemming business, i'll refer you to most episodes of "last week tonight with john oliver." an hbo show.
you can watch episodes on you tube for free after the episode airs on the network. also, the youtube channel, "some more news" with cody johnston and katy stoll does similar work. if you want to know what network news isn't likely to cover.
you bet your life. what?! no, but see? transactional.