Words have many meanings

 

Subject: Words have many meanings

Words have meanings but do they also have a differences. When I look at a dictionary there are a number of alternative words which describe loosely the meaning of another word. As human beings we accumulate thousands of words, some of which are specifically picked up in situations far different to another persons situation and therefore, their definition is coloured by where, when, how and under what circumstance they first learnt the word.

If we were to isolate people in a sealed environment much like Orwell's 'Brave New World' then words would take the meaning the 'directors of that world' wished to project but we know that some words have other meanings even when spelt the same way. How then do we differentiate between meaning other than by taking the context of the sentence in which the word is used. 

If we search our minds for context and through that search we embellish the meaning by adding our own context we are accused of many things, racism, bias, religious presumption, cynicism and much more and is of course the basis of so much misunderstanding, since my prejudice is different to yours. Is there in fact 'one' meaning or is the one meaning only suitable for one person.

Deconstructionism is the argument that historically words and meaning change and that attempts to inflate meaning into a truth is pointless, that the multiplicities and contingencies of human experience necessarily bring knowledge down to the local and specific level and challenge the centralising tendency to claim 'absolute truth'.

So when we hear that Megan Markle had heard that there were reservations in the royal household about the colour of her babies skin, it clearly demanded people making the statement should be ostracised. There are few who would hold a defence of such a statement in 2021 given the power for a need for racial harmony in these islands, (if for no other reason than white skinned people in this country will become a minority by 2050 so we better start watch our Ps and Qs, otherwise we might be in for a good old stoning).  

Of course it goes deeper than that, what on earth can skin colour have to do with describing a person. Do people of colour differ in any way from people who have a white or a yellow skin, are they in anyway the lesser or perhaps, even more superior because of their skin colour. Skin colour does represent cultures and attitudes since the very fact that skin couloir differs is through marriage and genetic breeding and in some of those societies which are of a different colour there is also a difference attitude to many social aspects of life. The discipline and the importance a  parent places on education for instance causes a child growing up in that society to value differently education from a western white child who makes assumptions about his or her rights. So skin colour used to be an indicator of what type of society you grew up in and what type of values may have. It was a generalisation but in a rough way had some validity. 

Listening to the debate on The Big Question the other day I was struck by the clarity of thought and the clear determination to be heard by Muslim women on the panel as they sort a reason to re-admit Shamima  Begum into this country. They were articulate and presented a 'tour de force' against the white people who didn't want to let her back. Some people would say this was prejudice at play, Begum was one of them, she was a member of the sisterhood and given the prejudice they see in all aspects of living in this country it's no wonder they are well honed on the subject. For the white people in the audience the subject of racism, or in Begums case the potential for terrorism, was an interesting debating point but they don't live the subject everyday. 

So here we have 'deconstruction' kicking in. Local affairs dominate, local prejudice dominates and if I were living in Pakistan my views would rightfully be very different.

Growing up in a bubble of white exclusivity such as the Royals it's hardly surprising that the colour of the child's skin did pass through their mind. Like Pavlov's dog they were groomed by the society they live in. They are not heinous for thinking in this way and I wish some of the strongest critics of our society would spend a couple of years living, not in a 5 star Beijing hotel but in one of the far flung Chinese provinces to see what being a 'White Devil' is like, not to mention what being a Muslim in China is like.

Maybe the Chinese are onto something.  Re-educate everyone might be the answer but I'm sure it wasn't on the mind of those equally privileged young women, who's parents  left the claustrophobic hold of an Islamic state to bring them here so they could have a platform to air their views.