Crossing the Dogma-Line

Posted on January 20, 2008
Filed Under Awareness, Fake Culture, Society |

At what point does something become dogma? When I talk about ‘dogma’, I am not just referring to the texts and beliefs of the Church, or the strictures of materialism. What I actually mean is this; any idea, thought or belief - when repeated often enough becomes a degree diluted. That is, it loses an element of its original ‘power’. For example if a person makes a statement based upon years of experience and consideration, and then I repeat those words - but without said experience - the words begin to lose their elemental force.

The difficulty is where do we find issue with this fact? Perhaps if we crafted our words with complete perfection, their meaning would be conveyed regardless of how, when and where they were spoken? Or perhaps the power behind a word is ‘reconstructed’ every time a person speaks it; different voice, different meaning.

But then, that is a very polaralized way of looking at things. After all, there is a vast difference between the meaning of words as opposed to the meaning behind the words. Can those two seemingly opposable aspects be reconciled? I think that attempt has to be made - otherwise we rapidly start to approach that dogma-line.

That is a task which requires something from both the speaker and the listener. The speaker must be aware of the impact of his words, and any implied weight certain of them may carry. Whilst the listener at all times should be open-minded enough to realize that they may be biased towards specific words. To me, that is about flexibility and awareness.

Consider the other angle; rigid thinking and ignorance - where can that lead?

The Dogma-line is where the perceived value of words supersedes any real meaning they may hold; when the value of the words is based purely upon the paper they are printed, or upon the book in which they are written. When the value of words is based only upon whom they are attributed to. When this happens that ‘word-value’ becomes as a materialistic weight, more prized than any revelation personal or otherwise.

Perhaps then, the key to unlocking meaning in the words of others, and effectively conveying our own meanings lies in our level of self-awareness.

Comments

2 Responses to “Crossing the Dogma-Line”

Dave on January 20th, 2008 2:41 pm

I like the idea of the speaker/listener sharing responsibility for the communication. It’s an exchange not to be taken lightly. You’re right, even though we need to choose our words with careful awareness of their potential, the onus then falls on the reader (audience) to give it their best effort at trying to put our words into perspective and understand them relatively.
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Marcus on January 21st, 2008 1:11 am

Language is very malleable, and that’s both a blessing and a curse. It means it can be used to manipulate in very powerful ways.

Yet the more aware the listener is, the less power language has to control.

There’s another aspect too. When a person misinterprets something’s meaning - he gives new meaning to that thing. So when he writes it down, it becomes even more obscure to the following readers.

I guess we need to find some sort of balance - otherwise couldn’t we end up fearing to speak?
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