Pakistan, societal dissociation, and Sapir-Whorf

Okay… do you get it now? We’ve supported a military dictatorship in Pakistan since 1999 and enabled this rogue dictatorship’s development and ownership (and thus USE) of nuclear weaponry. Yes — we — not our government… not our administration, not any other euphamistic term that downplays our individual responsibility for allowing this to happen. Listen for the use of the phrase “came to power” by the talking heads rather than any referenced to an election.

Whatever the Bushites do, we do, because we are not stopping them. I cannot continue to use language that separates we the people from we the government because it leads to dangerous societal dissociation. WE must stop using language that minimizes our responsibility for the fascistic government we have governing us. Language is power. The language we use in the present changes future pattern of thoughts and thus what is likely to happen.

While not all things scale up, I think this is an organizing principle of social systems. We must visualize and speak of a societally created, better and just governance or we will have no chance of enacting it.

So — this week’s exercise: watch how the corporate media describes the Pakistani military dictatorship’s suppression of the fragile tendrils of democracy in the courts and government and how you talk about the situation.