"make America great again” functions differently for you based on what is meaning-adjacent to the word “America” for you. Understanding that the meaning is not inside the word but inside each individual audience member, I know that the phrase decodes differently for different people"
And I would posit that different folks have different meanings for great as well! So interesting! However, I realize when I hear that phrase I know who it is being used by so I code it in what I think they are meaning...like "roll back civil liberties to anyone who is not a white male."
This reminds me quite a lot of Wendell Berry’s 1979 essay, “Standing by Words” in which he ties an increase in language which is “meaningless or destructive of meaning” to the disintegration (that is, the dis-integration) of individuals and communities. There’s a lot of value in Critical Theory, but I worry that we have so torn the heart of meaning out of words that we are struggling to reach each other. As you say, language has always been a rougher tool than we imagine it and everybody is reconstructing a sentence as they read it, yet I wonder if we are letting some of this theory put a road block between our ability to use language in a way that connects us.
Oh I am so heartened to see dialogue about these topics related to real things people are thinking about and doing! That we can build on the ideas that the critics put forth while prioritizing our relationships, our communities, and our own (my own, I should own that) sanity.
I particularly like this
"make America great again” functions differently for you based on what is meaning-adjacent to the word “America” for you. Understanding that the meaning is not inside the word but inside each individual audience member, I know that the phrase decodes differently for different people"
And I would posit that different folks have different meanings for great as well! So interesting! However, I realize when I hear that phrase I know who it is being used by so I code it in what I think they are meaning...like "roll back civil liberties to anyone who is not a white male."
This reminds me quite a lot of Wendell Berry’s 1979 essay, “Standing by Words” in which he ties an increase in language which is “meaningless or destructive of meaning” to the disintegration (that is, the dis-integration) of individuals and communities. There’s a lot of value in Critical Theory, but I worry that we have so torn the heart of meaning out of words that we are struggling to reach each other. As you say, language has always been a rougher tool than we imagine it and everybody is reconstructing a sentence as they read it, yet I wonder if we are letting some of this theory put a road block between our ability to use language in a way that connects us.
Oh I am so heartened to see dialogue about these topics related to real things people are thinking about and doing! That we can build on the ideas that the critics put forth while prioritizing our relationships, our communities, and our own (my own, I should own that) sanity.