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Words appeared recently only, when the age was stone, the Sahara green, and Northern Europe under 1-mile thick ice. That means the first 99.9997% of Earth-Time — the 4.65 billion years before words — were wordless, not much happened and the little that did, happened slowly.

However, in the .0003% of Earth-Time since, two things have changed rather quickly, in a heartbeat.

Words have gone from absent to dominating the world. In numbers, they have gone from naught to millions and even billions, according to those who claim to have counted them all to know how many words it takes to fill the world. 

In the same heartbeat, in parallel, the word-users have gone from absent to dominating the world. In numbers, we have gone from naught to 9 billion, but that’s not all. At the same time, we’ve gone from being just another animal to the top of the food chain, the most advanced specie ever, ready for breakfast on Mars, the high-water mark of evolution.  

What have words got to do with it? All kinds of things are being said, depending on who is saying them. The only difference is in how we respond, and you can’t order people what to trust, the word or the word-user, and what not. It’s a question of character and personal preference, to each their own. 

When you change the way you look at words, how you respond to all kinds of things being said changes, too.
#history#inspiration#words

Tele-vision is what the story of the purple cow is all about. Therefore, this post is about two separate things, tele-vision and purple-cow, with tele-vision first. 

TELE-VISION

We love to assume tele-vision was invented 92 years ago, however, nothing could be farther from the truth. Call our love for making assumptions a type of delusional trance or simply being mistaken, fact is, tele-vision was invented 10,000-plus years ago. Here’s how.

Upon the appearance of words on Earth, some 14,000 years ago, it didn’t take our ancestors long to discover that when you repeatedly say “sun” while pointing at it, the need for the actual sun fades away. After a while, you can get people to see the sun just by saying the word.

“The soul never thinks without a picture.” – Aristotle.

Thus, tele-vision was invented. Though Aristotle put it in words for everybody to see only much later, our early ancestors had already bitten into the apple, hence knew about words’ TV-feature from the beginning.

THE PURPLE COW 

The purple cow is a different story altogether because unlike the sun, it doesn’t exist, yet 10,000-plus years ago, people demanded proof. They demanded to see it with their own two eyes. Remember back then, eye cue reigned supreme and IQ hadn’t been invented yet. Imagine that! But let’s not get distracted. 

A long story short, our ancestors had to paint a cow purple first, then take the cow to the people, hoping it wouldn’t rain, or get the people to the cow. Imagine the time and energy just to get that first purple cow into people’s heads. But it was worth every minute and calorie for without the story of the purple cow, we’d still demand proof.

THE TWO TOGETHER

10,000 years later, no pun intended, tele-vision — getting people to see what’s not there — is a walk in the park. Just speak the words. And now, to get into people’s heads, we’ve come up with key-words, too. Yellow submarine.

What tends to get overlooked is the fact the word masters of old didn’t wait for us to invent TV or tele-keys. They’ve known about it all along which explains promised lands, nations of god and more recently, fake news, to name a few.

What will the word masters come up with next?

Anybody’s guess is as good or likely better than mine. But knowing it will be words has you better prepared for what’s up next than most.

The most policed

Ever since they first appeared, words have been the most policed item on Earth, more than any behavior, substance, or drug.

“In the beginning is the word” explains why, or as Rupert Kipling would have it, “Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.” It is not merely about interest in drugs, of course. The word-police objective is control of the word-user, that is you and me.

Pre-internet

Pre-internet, the policing of words was a manual affair. Imagine that! Keeping up with word-usage took armies of people who could read and write (the exception at the time). It also cost an arm and a leg and, therefore, was the exclusive domain of large organizations, such as religions and governments.  Sure, the reward system at the time — get paid in land the chief said was his — made it affordable, but that’s about chiefs, a different story entirely.

Post-internet

Because the internet gobbles up, stores, and disseminates more words faster than anything invented for that purpose before, after the internet, word-polices sprouted like mushroom after the rain. Specifically designed for the purpose, the internet makes word-searches easy and has leveled the playing field. Anyone with wifi and a handheld device — whether religion, government, service, corporation, league, association, individual, private, public, or secret — can be or have a word-police now. 

Post-handheld devices

So-called spyware. For example, Pegasus by the Israeli NSO Group, a spyware (that can be) covertly installed on mobile phones running iOS and Android. In mid-July 2021, an international consortium of journalists reported Pegasus had also been used to spy on opposition members, reporters, journalists, human rights activists, their family members and business people. In early November, the US government put NSO on its sanctions list, citing evidence that spy software had been supplied to governments that used it for the spying of, among others, government officials, journalists and scientists.

Those who say it is to keep us safe, and are honest about it, clearly also exist. But in large part, I think it is about keeping us on the straight and narrow. Depending on where you live, that might be all there is to it.

The games people play

Some of the word-watchers aren’t actual word-police, but instead they are word-watching the internet for nothing but opportunities to act offended, defamed, broken-hearted, having their feathers ruffled or their fury raised, or hurt in some other way, by a word they’ve worked hard all day to locate.

They’re only just playing the blame game and you’ve got better things to do. Ignore them if you can, but make no mistake about it, they all want the same thing: For you to not use your common senses… or to at least keep quiet when you do.  

Freedom of speech begins with freedom of words.

As we speak

Just because some of us are paranoiacs, that doesn’t mean the word-police is an illusion — as too many in many countries only know too well. 

Once you decide living in fear is out of the question, your only options are joy and quitting. 

“Like primitive, we now live in a global village of our own making, a simultaneous happening. It doesn’t necessarily mean harmony and peace and quiet, but it does mean huge involvement in everybody else’s affairs.” – Marshall McLuhan

HOW MANY WORDS MUST A CHILD LOOK UP BEFORE YOU CAN CALL IT AN ADULT? 

And if not each of the 928,989, where to start?

If you were to meet your 14-year old self again, what would you say about words that you didn’t know then?

That is what the upcoming WORD USER’S MANUAL is also about.

From wishing for words, we’re now drowning in them. In that sense, the WORD USER’S GUIDE is like learning to swim not just in the 928,989 words in the English Wiktionary today, but also in what’s next. Because if the past 0.0003% of Earth-Time is anything to go by, there’ll be another 928,989 words on top of the existing before long.

For the adults, it is okay because we’ve gotten used to it, but for the children it’s as confusing as the adults who say it’s okay.
#words#children#learning

Here’s a picture of me when I was 17.

It showed up out of the blue earlier today, and got me thinking nostalgic for a minute or two, but the thought came back again an hour later: If I knew then what I know now, what would I tell my teenage self?

What can a 17-year young understand? Looking for something true to say, leaving no stone unturned – it’d better be true – I ended up telling the kid in the photograph, “Without you, I wouldn’t be here. You did well.” 

I said that twice to ensure I heard it loud and clear.

It’s not always been easy. I grew up in a world of “Could do better!” Reminders in school reports, complete with exclamation marks, weren’t unusual. Yet, I was already doing my damn best! What happened?

Well, just what I needed, a learning difficulty of sorts, my parents were told which, to me, felt like being handed the key for hating school with a legit excuse! But what remains is I felt like everything with school was right and everything with me was wrong. Not ideal for keeping the self-esteem of a little kid up where it belongs, but hey, that’s how I felt and I was young. We all go to school and get over it eventually, we all do, isn’t that so?

Well, I kept “Could do better!” throughout the rest of my teenage years. I was a handful, but who isn’t early in life, eh? It can be fun for a while, but it can also lead to a life of always between boredom and panic and everybody wants what the other has got.

I loved hanging out with people just like me. Of course, it didn’t get me anywhere, but it felt the safe thing to do and the best years of my life. The memories aren’t fun. On the contrary, at 17, I’m always alone and it’s cold.

My life is different now.

“You did well.”

I’m doing my best, like everybody else.

The “Could do better!” people also have a motivation, just a different one.

Know what you want. Perhaps that’s all there is to it?
#words#storytime#nostalgia