Re: Labels

Hey Zoe -

Great post, and thanks - this is indeed a great spot for it!

Words ascribing attributes - such as those about Jefferson in your quote - can be useful, as their context is usually pretty universal, i.e., everyone ‘knows’ what adjectives like “brave”, “honest”, “genius”, etc. mean.

But when you try to use a single word - a label like liberal, conservative, democrat, republican, etc. - to represent a set of bundled qualities, beliefs, or opinions of a person - or worse yet, the entire character and intent of a person - then you’ve got *massive* deletion of information going on. Line up 50 “democrats” and I think you’ll find none of them agree with the entire democratic platform, in fact, I’ll bet you’ll find they agree with each other on fewer than 50% of the issues. Same for any ‘label’ group. 50 people labeled as ‘democrats’ are going to be as diverse and different in their values, pursuits, experience, and thoughts as 50 people labeled ‘Doger fans’.

We’re a diverse set of humans, each with a unique crucible of experience and knowledge. The challenges and systems we are dealing with are complex and very large. Our personal needs and goals are different. Our diversity and different perspectives are an asset and strength, when properly applied and coordinated.

Broad labels that attempt such large representation of a person or group of people are so massively simplified and so extremely inaccurate that they are actually useless, linguistically.

Emotionally, however, as you’ve experienced, they are quite useful and affecting. They “rally teams” and instantly create a conflict model of “us vs. them”. And each person is rallied to the core, since each person is interpreting the word as it means the most to them. Hmmm. Clarity, accuracy and actual communication between folks seem to be lacking here. Reality check, anyone?

Check two things: (1) study up on nominalizations and extreme generalizations (stereotypes in some lingos), and see how they function linguistically and in the human brain interpreting them (i.e., notice that each human brain simply assigns its own meaning to the word, and there is no guidepost definition to help the brain choose otherwise), and (2) simply observe the effects that using these kinds of words have on people, groups, and outcomes. What do they produce in the end? Is that what you want to produce in your life, neighborhood, and your country?

Thanks much for posting. This was a great topic to write about for me. :)

Namaste,
–Katin