We live in a world in which all our daily interactions only have meaning because we give them meaning. We are told that what we do is meaningful, but this idea of our actions being meaningful is given most of its weight because this is the only world we know. Before existence, there was no template for interaction or anything of the sort. It was an idea fancied in God’s mind that we might be given the ability to communicate with one another, and that we might react based on surrounding elements. Correspondingly, mouths, brains and nervous systems (among other things), were created.
Every word we hear and understand and think we’ve so mastered by understanding it – it is no more than an abstract sound formed by the slimy whip of the muscles in our mouths, having meaning only because we attribute meaning to it. Every word you hear is a noise, completely abstract and obscure, that we acclimate ourselves to hearing and so attach a meaning to it.
The word “so.” The word “cart.” The word “cactus.” Say them out loud, and think only about the way they sound, and not about the meaning we attribute to them. Say them again and again. They are all just abstract sounds. They do not, themselves, have meaning, but only seem to have meaning because we, ourselves, attribute meaning to them.
This is the case with any gesture or form of communication. Look at people clapping. It looks so strange if you think only about what’s literally happening, and strip our societal, conventional understanding of what clapping means completely away.
Of course this will probably never have any real use. We’ll surely be in this world for as long as we live. Certainly we’d be best suited for this world accepting all it’s patterns, customs and quirks as completely normal, and acting accordingly.
But the fact that of all the atoms and molecules and beings in the universe, I actually have come to exist is nothing short of astounding. That my consciousness exists and was placed in this body, of all things, is nothing short of astounding. My consciousness, which is not the same as this body, exists, and has the ability to perceive and understand. I have entered into a world that is much greater than I, and what’s more, my entrance was completely beyond my control. I was given no choice for whether or not I’d like to be born – I just came out. I could have been born into any set of circumstances on the planet; or perhaps, born somewhere else into some other world. Who’s to say it’s impossible?
I can’t help but feel like I’ve uncovered some great truth. But what do I do with it?
I started looking for a way to form a response around the social construct idea your getting at in this blog post and found the most relevant quote, in my mind, pertaining to communication and it's place in society.
ReplyDelete"In whatever culture we live and whatever our role in it, we must negotiate among a variety of events and objects. These include the normal activities of life and the social contexts in which they occur. ...The traditional way of coming to grips with them...assumes that these events and objects exist objectively and tangibly, that knowledge consists of more or less accurate descriptions of them, and that we "respond" to them or "cause" them to move/change by our actions. In short it treats the events and objects of the world as things that we find.
The alternative view shows the events and objects of the world as the products of human agency. Rather than "found things" existing independently in an objective world, events and objects as we know them are constructed by the continuing dialectic of interpretation and action. ...This view inverts the traditional assumption of the relationship between events/objects and communication. Rather than treating wars, economic depressions, and political systems as objective events within which or about which we might communicate, it takes them as instances of communication.... It is more productive to inquire why patterns of communication so often take the form we call "war" than to treat war as a found thing the probability of which is increased or decreased by specified amounts of communication."
I guess then, that what I'm describing transcends the "traditional way" of coming to grips with social interaction. My stance seems to lean more toward the alternative view. Compellingly, the alternative view offers more in the way of a sense of power and control - I believe also, however, that it is the correct way for us to perceive the world. What do you think?
ReplyDeleteNearly everything is socially constructed. Our sense of order, our idea of war, the idea of beauty. Even events that you call "meaningful" are only meaningful in the accepted form and/or your interpretation of the word. Meaning in and of itself is completely subjective and meaningless (forgive me). We give words and events and social rankings power because of human nature, break it down and it's only an action with a respective reaction, even at the molecular level.
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