Poll: To Destroy A Concept....

[NeutralMunchHotel]

You must destroy the word.

Or so says Stephen Fry in one of his (fantastic) Podgrams. Basically, he states that in order to remove a concept from society the word itself must be removed, and that if an aspiring dictator did this then he would be entirely successful. For instance, after years of the word 'freedom' not existing, then soon the very idea of freedom would too not exist.

Now aside from the obvious logistical problems of removing a word from society, (it would be very hard, if not impossible) do you think that this would work? I know it's quite an abstract idea, but personally I think that without the word after, maybe, a century, then the concept would at the very least be distilled.

 

[Xyphon]

Holy hell. At least put a warning sign up before people read that. It's almost 5 in the morning here and that was a pretty nice brain overload for me. >_o

 

[lostclause]

Difficult. Some things impossible (say cows) because of a constant reminder that they're there, we just don't know what to call them. Also you'd have to prevent the definition being attached to a different word as well as get rid of synonyms.

 

[dwightsteel]

Some would contend that some ideas are innate. With or without a word like freedom, I don't think that people would stop fighting for it.

 

[Cpt_Oblivious]

It's all for nothing if you don't have Freedom!

 

[odBilal]

You must destroy the word.

Or so says Stephen Fry in one of his (fantastic) Podgrams. Basically, he states that in order to remove a concept from society the word itself must be removed, and that if an aspiring dictator did this then he would be entirely successful. For instance, after years of the word 'freedom' not existing, then soon the very idea of freedom would too not exist.

Sounds like 1984 from George Orwell
In the Book it worked but its very difficult to do that in reality

 

[scotth266]

No, it wouldn't. People would just make up a new word to describe the same thing.

 

[1ronJ4m]

1984 feeling...
I think it would work, but it would need a seriously overtotalitarian government. (far more than, say the USSR or Nazi Germany)

 

[Labyrinth]

Doubleplusgoodthink. Newspeak plusgood introduce. Crimethink destroy.

In short, it's theoretically possible, just as the word Crimethink is used in 1984 as a blanket statement which, once Newspeak is the only language, will be the only possibility for people to use if they wish to express something outside of the Party's doctrine.

Would it work? Quite possibly, but you'd need to eradicate all synonyms and all words which could be used to describe it, not just the word itself.

 

[ILPPendant]

Yes and no. Words that describe abstract political or philosophical concepts like "heliocentrism" or "antidisestablishmentarianism" can be (theoretically) removed and the ideas they conveyed may very well die with them.

However, if I excised the words "hot" or "cold" from the English language, people wouldn't suddenly start sticking their hands in fires and wondering what it might feel like because it's an idea we deal with every day and we don't need a word to understand it.

 

[SomeLameStuff]

Where the hell is the "under certain circumstances" option? Because in some cases it may work, in others it won't.

 

[RivFader86]

no...i think the ppl would simply find a new word for it

 

[NeutralMunchHotel]

Yes and no. Words that describe abstract political or philosophical concepts like "heliocentrism" or "antidisestablishmentarianism" can be (theoretically) removed and the ideas they conveyed may very well die with them.

However, if I excised the words "hot" or "cold" from the English language, people wouldn't suddenly start sticking their hands in fires and wondering what it might feel like because it's an idea we deal with every day and we don't need a word to understand it.

But the question just deals with concepts. Heat is a physical thing, and people would know about this. However, there is no such physical thing as freedom, it is just an idea, and without a word there is no way to pass on this idea which is why I believe it would eventually die out.

 

[Zacharine]

Yes and no. Words that describe abstract political or philosophical concepts like "heliocentrism" or "antidisestablishmentarianism" can be (theoretically) removed and the ideas they conveyed may very well die with them.

However, if I excised the words "hot" or "cold" from the English language, people wouldn't suddenly start sticking their hands in fires

^this. In addition, even though some ideas might die as a consequence of removing the word, someone came up with those ideas to name in the first place. Therefore, dead ideas (abstract or concrete) would (and sometimes historically have!) resurfaced with the passing of time.

 

[bushwhacker2k]

Where the hell is the "under certain circumstances" option? Because in some cases it may work, in others it won't.

Yeah, I disagree with No and Yes. If you remove the word yes from people's vocabulary, someone is going to notice, unless yeah is taught in it's stead.

That aside, how the hell do you remove a word from vocabulary? Go around having your evil army of doom raid houses and read books to see if they have the word and get rid of it and stop any production of anything with the word and wait 30 years? I don't see this happening...

If you remove the word freedom, will the word oppression cease as well? I think not.

 

[ILPPendant]

But the question just deals with concepts. Heat is a physical thing, and people would know about this. However, there is no such physical thing as freedom, it is just an idea, and without a word there is no way to pass on this idea which is why I believe it would eventually die out.

Certainly that's true but I can still conceive of heat even without a direct heat source. My point is that even if you destroy the names of ideas that we encounter on a daily basis you can't destroy the ideas themselves.

Words like "freedom" are probably abstract enough to be up there with "heliocentrism" or "Protestantism" and may very well be extinguished.

That aside, how the hell do you remove a word from vocabulary? Go around having your evil army of doom raid houses and read books to see if they have the word and get rid of it and stop any production of anything with the word and wait 30 years? I don't see this happening...

Have you read Nineteen Eighty-Four? Perhaps also consider Fahrenheit 451 or Animal Farm.

 

[Borrowed Time]

It depends on how abstract the idea is. Literal things, such as the hot and cold that was mentioned before would persist. Also, things that are opposites would both have to be removed. In the yes and no case, no then another negative could mean a positive, or yes. Not never = always, etc, granted it couldn't work nearly so well in reverse, but that's because it hasn't needed to. It could be adopted to quite easily.

Ideas though, such as your example of freedom, would be much harder to grasp for an extended period of time. If all synonyms could be quashed as well, then perhaps. Some dialects/languages don't have direct words for certain ideas that are represented in english, yet they have come up with other ways of expressing them. You would need complete control, which would honestly be quite difficult.

 

[messy]

It's a good concept. But to you'd also have to remove any idea of freedom. If someone gets a taste for it (what ever you call it/don't call it) in one aspect of their life and not in others they will question why this is.

So to completely remove it it'd take a few generations of mindless obedience, and that would involved taking them form birth. But with an idea like freedom if you have no experience of it you'd never try to obtain it, and if there's no word for it then there's nothing to put that idea in your head. So I think if you truly wanted to remove it you'd have to at the very least remove the word

 

[cobra_ky]

it could work, but not permanently. in the case of freedom, as long as it's a usefulness topic for people to discuss it will always come back in some form.

 

[Dr Ampersand]

No you'd need to remove the thing as well. People would use general words to describe the concept using words like thingy or call something "that feeling". If you wanted to remove freedom remove the word and make the person not have any freedom in their life.