Icons and Etymology

A friend of mine has devoted his blog, The Daily Planet, to Heroes. Not just the super powered ones in colorful costumes (although he writes about them too) but “the ones who amaze by inches instead of leaps and bounds”. It’s a great blog, a growing repository for stories, of generosity and kindness, but it awoke an intense debate over the meaning of the word “hero”. Could an act of everyday kindness really be considered heroic? It was argued that heroism, must involve, risk, courage, and sacrifice. A bit of generosity or personal consideration, although laudable in itself, simply didn’t qualify.

The argument went back and forth. Both sides were intelligent, articulate and persuasive but they made no headway because the argument wasn’t about substance but about symbols.

The substance wasn’t up for debate. Everyone, agreed that kindness is an admirable, even inspirational quality and everyone agreed that there are differences both of substance and scale between giving someone a helping hand and running into a burning building to save a child. The real controversy was about the word itself.

Words are incredible containers for meaning. Use them correctly, and people will literally worship at their feet. Use them offensively, and people will kill to defend them.

Stephen King once said that words had the power of both telepathy and time travel, because they could transport ideas directly from the mind of the author to the mind of the reader years, even centuries later. There is no diminishment of meaning. The words of Dante, Shakespeare, and Hemingway reach across the years to echo once again in the mind of every new reader.

And words aren’t the only magical symbols. A cross, a swastika, a flag. People have killed for these symbols. People have died for them.

Throughout history, armies marched to war behind a banner or flag. To carry the flag was considered a great honor and soldiers would compete for the right. They did this knowing that the flag bearer was the most vulnerable soldier on the field, as he had to march weaponless at the head of the column, an easy target for the enemy. The army will follow the flag in a way they will not follow a man because a flag is more than just a strip of cloth. It is family, and home and love. It is God and country and justice and identity. Is it any wonder, that people are outraged when someone talks of burning one?

In many ways these symbols can become more powerful than the ideas they represent. How else can you explain nations that kill in the name of peace, religions who torture non-believers to accept a God that was himself tortured to death, or the enslavement of one people by another in the name of freedom. Peace, God and Freedom are three beautiful ideas but the words that represent them have been the battle cries of a thousand tyrannies.

Words, and symbols have started revolutions and toppled empires. They can unlock the best and worst in man, they can change the face of history and set the course of our future.

Powerful magic indeed.

But as my friend who writes the Daily Planet blog would be sure to remind me, “With great power comes great responsibility”.

We must remember that words have no intrinsic value, no ingrained meaning. They are simply sounds, or lines on a page. They have only as much or as little meaning as we give them. The most powerful words in our world, love, hate, rape, God, country, have no meaning whatsoever to a person not educated in their usage. Just as written Sanskrit or Aramaic would have no meaning for us. They are tools. Incredibly powerful tools, to be sure, but tools nonetheless. They allow us to describe, not only, the material world but the immaterial world as well. The invisible world of emotions, and ideas of Gods and Devils becomes tangibly, indelibly real through the use of language. In fact, one is forced to wonder if those concepts themselves could have existed in a world without words to describe them.

To make matters worst, words are not stable. Meanings shift from year to year, person to person and place to place. What was offensive a few years ago is commonplace today. “Nigger”, probably the most powerfully charged word in America, can have vastly different meanings depending on how, when and by whom it is used.

So, how are we to navigate this maze of meanings? What else can I use to understand what you mean if I can’t trust what you say.

The solution, I believe is to strive to listen deeply. To hear the words, yes, but also to listen to the intention behind them. When someone says something that we find offensive it is important to ask ourselves if they were trying to offend. Seek the meaning not the medium. If someone says they love you but their behavior is cruel and demeaning, then perhaps you must ignore the word and listen to the actions. If a nation offers freedom at the point of the gun, then they have forgotten what true freedom is.

But the burden doesn’t lie solely with the listener. Free speech is, in my opinion, the most important of our rights, but the words and symbols we use can have consequences well beyond our intentions. If your intention is to offend, then by all means do it. But if you offend accidentally, or use a word, which can be misconstrued, then your meaning will be lost and only the words will be remembered.

Saying the right words isn’t enough. Most religions in the world agree on fundamental principles of peace, compassion and forgiveness, yet most religions have at one time or another indulged, in violence, vengeance and greed.

Hearing the wrong words isn’t enough. Words are excellent tools for dividing things up, for pointing out flaws, and differences. But only through compassion and understanding can we hope to overcome the barriers that divide us and find harmony.