words matter …
Have you ever wondered about this wonderful world of words we live in today? I mean really, think about it, billions of people have the potential to read my words, but only a very small (extremely small actually) of people will ever meet me in real life.
Billions of people vs thousands (maybe) and of those that meet me, only a very small percentage of those will actually spend any real time around me, get to “know” me in a general sense, and then, we finally peel back the onion enough, we get to a core group of people that know me intimately (not in the sexual sense).
We say “actions are more important than words” — but are they really? In today’s society, are words the least important of those two? How many people will see or be affected by “my actions” versus those that could be affected in some way by my words? It’s not hard to imagine, at least for in my life, my words will have a much greater chance of having an affect than my actions. We can debate any single individual — pull an example of the President of the United States — and say, but HIS actions …. that’s not point, I would love for President Obama to read my words and take some action with them — but most of us, don’t have that kind of ability in our lives. Most of us (and yes, the majority of us) have a much higher ability to influence with our words, than we do with our actions.
“But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.”
― George Orwell, 1984
So, to me Words Matter.
Especially, those you put out there on this crazy internet — all those words we text to people, put in an email, tweet, update, comment, and in this case, in an article. They matter. They are who you are, the are representatives of a real person, with real life swirling around them. Oh, they may be promotional, they could be self serving, but they are yours. You have cast a stone into the calm waters, and created a ripple.
In the quote above, George Orwell brings to mind just how powerful words are (and of course, he made his living in the world of words) and how much influence they can have in people’s lives. “Language corrupts thought” — ok, I paraphrased — but stop and think about that for a second. Go ahead — STOP and THINK.
Our words have the power to corrupt someone’s thinking and there is nothing more power, more personal, than our thoughts. Right now, today, it is only real privacy we have left. Technology has no way to read our actual thoughts or peer through our memory. BUT …
MY words can creep into YOUR thoughts.
It’s get more powerful than that. If you read my words enough, and think about them enough, my words can become your words. It’s all wonderful and good if my words are about Love, Puppies, Rainbows, Hugs, etc. — if on the other hand, they are Hate, Abusive Power, Winning at All Costs, Manipulating Others for Your Personal Pleasure — maybe my words aren’t as great.
Words don’t care
The computer program that controls this website, it doesn’t care what I write. My laptop that provides a place to put letters together to create these words, it doesn’t care. The network cables, the airwaves, the various routers and connections and anything else between YOU and ME, none of that cares. And most of all, the words don’t care. All that “stuff” impersonal, none of it cares. It comes does to very intimate relationship — it’s me and you. I’m putting the words together, and you are reading them. It’s simple — but powerful. Take care not to abuse that power because …
Words matter.
The following are examples of very influential books, tell me words don’t matter.
- The New Testement — 138,020 words
- The Qur’an — 77,439 words
- The Torah — 79,976 words
- The US Constitution — 4,543 words
- The US Declaration of Independence — 1,137 words
Hi, I’m Arnie McKinnis. You can find me on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Google+ … I also have a website amckinnis.com … I’m available for marketing related projects either on a short or long term basis.
