The state of being conscious has eluded definition, and certainly no one knows how it “emerges” from neurological systems. However, we do know that our consciousness is closely connected to the human mind’s propensity for symbolic representation of our experience, i.e., language. Language includes words, of course, but it also encompasses the language of numbers, imagery, facial expression, gestures and actions. I’d like to talk about just the words at the moment.
Since the 1980s, I’ve listened to the English language in the United States steadily adopt a habitual inclusion of what I’ll call “filler” words. These are words that convey no meaning and essentially take the place of the equally useless “um” or “uh” that serves as a placeholder in the auditory stream, indicating the speaker is momentarily stumped as to what to say next, and feels compelled to fill the air with noise.
Over the decades, this practice of inserting filler words has become infectious. Now, even network news hosts are peppering their on-screen oration with such words. Luminary television journalists are doing it now. I’ve heard people like Anderson Cooper stuck in oral neutral, spewing filler word after filler word, while the listening audience waits on a cliff edge for some morsel of meaning to finally spill out.
[The following article represents solely the opinion of the author and no one else.]
When I first heard it, I didn’t understand what “deep state” meant, except that whoever was using the phrase seemed to convey a sense of foreboding, implying a hidden cabal of people who want something that will cost “us” in turn. Somehow, the “deep state” is supposedly really in control, and its intentions are malicious.
One pave stone at a time, our country now has the opportunity to repair the potholes in our path to a better future. It will take all of us–Democrats, Republicans, independents and all the remaining political parties who siphon votes off for causes that cannot succeed without broader appeal. It will take a concerted effort to, as Biden says, quit seeing people who disagree with us as the “enemy”.
