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. There needs to be a universal system of labeling as well as classifying if the practice of medicine is to operate. However, this need for classification has also been heavily abused. Practitioners of medicine have united in exploiting the power of language and it is here that the power of language is seen to be enormously magnified for pecuniary gains. Physicians are fully aware of the massive influence of language upon human perception and behavior; they have thus created abstractions leading to substantial effects which linguistic scholar Suzette Haden Elgin describes as coming “very close to being magical.”
In her book The Language Imperative, Elgin provides a case study called “The Menopause Transformation” where doctors seem to have created a disease—if you can even call it that—by transforming a normal stage of every women’s life called menopause. Doctors refer to it as hypoestrogenemia. Certainly, if a patient learns that she is merely going through a normal stage of life, she wouldn’t feel obliged to see a doctor. But if a doctor reveals that she has hypoestrogenemia, it has a strong negative connotation making it sound almost as if she has a disease. The perception of the same stage of a women’s life becomes blurred and distorted; their ability to reason seems to fail as the power of language is much too overwhelming. What patients do not know, is that the symptoms of menopause and hypoestrogenemia are exactly identical; yet once a patient is diagnosed with hypoestrogenemia, her life is never the same again. Millions of women are being diagnosed with hypoestrogenemia; that’s a lot of patients and a huge influx of money being spent for health care. The power of language is surreptitiously being exploited for monetary gains.
Yet the power of language does not end just there. As we enter the world of human sciences, we can analyze human behaviors with respect to cultural influences upon language. For example, one aspect of language that we are usually oblivious to is the mere sound of language and its powerful effects on the way we perceive. This is perhaps reflected in the media where I’ve noticed that a product which has no ties with the United Kingdom is advertised with a British accent. Beneath the seemingly typical commercial lie the dark intents of the promoter. The reason why a British accent was employed can perhaps be explained from the undeniable fact that sounds of spoken language have acquired stereotypes.
When a person sees a commercial with a person speaking in a British accent, it seems as if he is in a position of authority—he is someone educated and highly sophisticated. This is an example of the exploitation of the spoken sound of languages as the advertiser wishes to take advantage of this stereotype. When an African-American speaks the same language, the general perception of the product is enshrouded by an aura of repulsiveness. The public may view the product as being associated with gangsters from ghettos. In addition, a Chinese accent seems to have acquired a negative connotation as well. When I go to the cinema, I cannot help but shake my head when I notice others laughing mockingly when someone who is Chinese and cannot speak English very well is hired to advertise a product. Somehow, faulty notions that “all people who are Chinese are exceedingly uneducated and do not deserve respect” have been spread as a result of their accent and unfamiliarity of the English language. Association with the Chinese is seen as being parallel being subject to poverty or welfare. Makers of advertisements are well aware of these stereotypes and have constructed a world in which these prejudices are reinforced. As Thomas de Zengotita explains in his article “The Numbing of the American Mind”, fabrication has become indistinguishable from reality—and it is through the reinforcement of societal prejudices that reality is becoming stained with ridiculous fallacies. We are no longer conscious if information we are being given are real or mere fabrications of the media due to the corrupted use of the power of language.
Whereas Sartre’s claim is for the most part true, one might make a counterclaim suggesting that his claim fails to recognize how the power of language can be utilized as a powerful medium for motivation and not be, as he describes it, “treacherous”. This is certainly true. In William Shakespeare’s Henry V, where faced with a potentially disastrous situation, Henry’s mastery in the use of rhetoric inspires his troops and incites them for battle. Clearly, when used effectively in the right hands, language has the remarkable ability to arouse excitement and lift spirits in times of need.
In addition, Sartre’s claim does not seem hold true for areas of knowledge such as mathematics where language exists in the form of numbers. Mathematics is based on a clear set of rules where logic and reason form its meat and where it is generally free from linguistic influences.
Even though we exercise our ability to use language in a well-structured and articulated manner, we often overlook the power of words. We fail to notice the spurious claims that flourish within today’s society as we gradually become numb to the fabricated reality constructed by the media through the exploitation of our language. Even within our much-trusted health care system, we are deceived and swindled by those in authority. Our history is tainted with the dark and cruel deceptions of leaders such as Hitler who sought to defend nothing except their own egoistic interests. Surely, history almost always has a way of intruding upon the present. Hence, it is important for us to become aware of how unbelievably deep the hole of deception really is. We must learn to rise from the dark hole of lies and deceit to the sunlit paths of truth and reality. And truth be told, we have not even remotely reached the bottom of the hole of mendacity through my analysis; we have merely scratched the surface.
Bibliography
Bronson, Eric. “Why Maggie Matters: Sounds of Silence, East and West.” The Simpsons and Philosophy: The D’oh of Homer. Ed. William Irwin, Mark T. Conrad, and Acon J. Skoble. Peru, IL: Open Court, 2001.
De Zengotita, Thomas. “The Numbing of the American Mind.” Harper’s Magazine. April 2003: 33-40.
Elgin, H. Suzette. The Language Imperative. New York: Perseus Books Group, 1999.
Jowett, Garth S. and Victoria O’Donnell. Propaganda and Persuasion. 2nd ed. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, 1992.
“Nazi Propaganda”. May 10 2003 < >.
Pratkanis, Anthony and Elliot Aronson. Age of Progaganda. 2nd ed. New York: W.H. Freeman and Company, 2001