The Surreptitious Exploitation of Language.

Authors Avatar

Theory of Knowledge Essay:

The Surreptitious Exploitation of

Language

Jack Chang

#114727

Word Count: 1585

May 12 2003

Mrs. Mogyoroshi

Block E


 The Surreptitious Exploitation of

 Language

By Jack Chang

        In today’s society, we live in a world that seeks to conceal rather than to reveal. However, education has challenged us to evaluate the vast wealth of knowledge that we acquire on a day to day basis and assess how much information is actually being exposed to us and how much is being masked from our perception. Indeed, we are bombarded by daily doses of fallacies that exist even within the information that we are being given; there is no doubt that they are deeply embedded within the social fabric of society in which we seek comfort in. Yet the plethora of deceptive techniques being employed in today’s society amounts to an incredible, if not shocking, figure. French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre once claimed that “words are more treacherous and powerful than we think.” In doing so he warns and hints to us the perils that lay hidden within language since words have the power to dictate our emotions, feelings and behaviors in such a way that leads us astray from the truth. In this manner, reality often becomes engulfed with trickery and deception. Inevitably, we have gradually become victims of the concealed exploitations of language. When language is effectively exploited, it can be both tremendously persuasive and enormously influential.

        According to Sartre, it is through speech that humans first became integrated in society. Since a person’s life is characterized by a constant need for interaction, words were essential for this need to become fulfilled. However, throughout history, this need for interaction has been abused in a way that has led to subliminal “brain washings” in an attempt to alter our perception as well as emotions of surrounding events.

For example, the language of political propaganda has been commonly characterized by deep emotional appeal. Through careful manipulation of language, perceptions have been successfully tainted if not distorted in a way that has wholly changed our view of the world. Defined in Propaganda and Persuasion as “the deliberate and systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions and direct behavior…” (Jowett and O’Donnell 4), Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi’s chief minister of propaganda enabled the Nazi’s to shape and bend the nation at their will. The Nazi’s rise to power was the corollary of their mastery and control over the usage of language; they created a world of half-truths and big lies. They utilized words that were either positive or neutral meaning as a substitute when referring to acts of extreme destruction and extermination. In doing so, the truth was concealed by instilling faulty emotions within the German nation. The term “final solution” of the Jewish problem was used instead of the term “destruction”; they did not steal property but “secured” it; they didn’t arrest citizens but took them into “protective custody” (Pratkanis and Aronson 318). With the overflow in the usage of euphemisms, the psychology of the populace was effectively shaped by the precarious hands of Hitler’s regime.

Join now!

By analyzing the history of our society, we have learned that language can certainly be a treacherous tool when left in the wrong hands. However, language is also just as powerful when exploited in the natural sciences such as the field of medicine. Indeed, language can be considered the foundation upon which our health care system operates. As L.S. Halstead explains “For a time they [physicians] were dealing with a cluster of symptoms that had no name—and without a name there was, in essence, no disease.” A means of communication and categorization is vitally important for the practice of medicine. ...

This is a preview of the whole essay