There is always a voice somewhere insisting that “words mean something,” which is almost entirely incorrect. In essence they mean nothing, and in practice, very, very little.
The apparent power of words rests in the fact that they exist in a realm all their own, alone with nothing to check, counter or oppose their assertions, except other words. No cats to keep rats in line; no mountains to keep valleys honest. Without the presence of an extrinsic, interrelated entity, a thing can go wild, and in this case the thing is words. They do indeed run out of control right under everyone’s nose – and no one seemingly knows about it.
Men do not individually appear to be aware of this, but collectively their behavior clearly shows otherwise. The only exception to words not meaning anything entirely, is in their mass-agreed-upon specific significance in men’s second reality. Within the framework of his invented judicial institutions, a necessary support to civilization itself, men collectively and arbitrarily agree that certain words represent certain unambiguous desires cum decisions of the collective. The ignoring of which carries certain specific consequences, to be executed by the collective.
The group declares: “One man will not take another man’s food, and if he does, we will collectively appoint someone to cut off his hand.” Under these conditions alone can words be said to actually “mean something.” The rest of the time, in their ceaseless, everyday use, they mean nothing. This does not keep people from believing, (whatever that word means), that they do. A man will physically attack another man because, (he says), of words the other man spoke and so words must mean something!?
To a mind from which the remnants of childhood oatmeal have been wiped, (and in actuality, at the substantive level for everyone), the only words that by their own nature “mean something” are those whose only purpose is to represent an object or activity in the physical world. But easy observation reveals that less than 2% of human speech is so involved. The rest of the time the words which flow from men’s mouths, represent nothing that actually exists, and thus they mean nothing.
J.