28 FEBRUARY, 2016
Rio de Janeiro
DEATH OF LANGUAGE! - George Orwell, in his classic shock novel "1984" predicted long ago that in the future, we would develop a new language, called "NewSpeak." When mastered, we would only communicate the most necessary things, and if done correctly, the language would sound something like quacking.
I say that George Orwell's dreary and pessimistic prediction of our future linguistic interaction was far short of the disaster that it is today, and the vast wasteland that it is becoming.
Instead of quacking, we communicate by "tweeting" - putting all our ideas and thoughts into brief, instantaneous bursts of 140 characters - or less.
Our spelling has degraded to third-grade level, we have ceased to teach cursive writing, and books - once guardians and storehouses of our knowledge and culture - have been relegated to curio shops and museums.
We no longer see value in the written or spoken word, nor in the listening to, or telling of a tale.
We live in an era of sound bites and 4-second news clips. Anything "in depth" is dumbed-down to a least common intelligence level, and, though much is still being communicated through emails and text messages, very, very LITTLE is actually being said!
LOL! LMAO, BFF and other abbreviations have replaced words, and emoticons are rapidly replacing the abbreviations.
WE ARE QUICKLY BECOMING NON-LINGUAL!!
We have no patience for storytellers, have distain for poets, and classic novels are now relegated to Cliff notes.
Just the facts, Ma'am.
Yes, it's a Brave, New Millennium.... But it is a time period in which, regretfully for me, I must live. Every day I speak to people who do not listen; they merely point or gesture — avoiding use of words wherever possible.
To illustrate my point, I will now rewrite the novel "A Night to Remember," which dealt with the sinking of the Titanic:
"The ship sunk."
...and with it, our culture, our history, our knowlege, our intelligence, and our HUMANITY are also sinking into an abyss of ignorance.
Our new motto is "The dumber, the better."
Dumb people are easily controlled and subjugated.
There's much to be said for dumbing-down of our oral and written skills. Much, indeed, ..and I hope that it is said in time!
