Green Lives Matter!
Mar. 16th, 2023 11:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
blogcutterAh, words. You know, those things we use to communicate with.
Some words are highly ambiguous and have many emotional overtones, and that's one reason why human language is so rich and expressive. But when we need to communicate an important message (say, regarding COVID vaccines) to millions or billions of people, we usually try to pick plain and simple language that people will understand immediately, at first listen or read.
Problem is, the commonest words in our language are precisely the ones that we use in idiomatic expressions and that can denote and connote multiple concrete and abstract concepts. And some of the most commonly used words are colour words, like blue, black or green.
When it comes to crafting messages for broadcast or wide public consumption, we can't get away with saying, like Humpty Dumpty in Through the Looking Glass, "When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less."
So what about green? And what if I say "Green Lives Matter!"
My first impulse is generally to interpret "green" in the sense of ecologically-minded, as in Greenpeace or the Green Party. But of course, the word "green" has many other connotations as well.
Maybe it means that the lives of little green men - space aliens who feed on all that green cheese on the moon - are what matters.
Maybe I'm saying the lives of rich people matter. Sadly that does often seem to be the way of the world.
Do people only matter if they are jealous or envious? Or if they are newbies, still "wet behind the ears"?
Foodstuffs may be green if they're unripe but also if they're overripe and have gone mouldy.
"Code green" in hospital lingo is apparently used to call for an emergency evacuation.
I may be walking a thin green line by posting this but if I've offended anyone ... well, I'm a vegetarian and I'd be happy to eat my words.
Some words are highly ambiguous and have many emotional overtones, and that's one reason why human language is so rich and expressive. But when we need to communicate an important message (say, regarding COVID vaccines) to millions or billions of people, we usually try to pick plain and simple language that people will understand immediately, at first listen or read.
Problem is, the commonest words in our language are precisely the ones that we use in idiomatic expressions and that can denote and connote multiple concrete and abstract concepts. And some of the most commonly used words are colour words, like blue, black or green.
When it comes to crafting messages for broadcast or wide public consumption, we can't get away with saying, like Humpty Dumpty in Through the Looking Glass, "When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less."
So what about green? And what if I say "Green Lives Matter!"
My first impulse is generally to interpret "green" in the sense of ecologically-minded, as in Greenpeace or the Green Party. But of course, the word "green" has many other connotations as well.
Maybe it means that the lives of little green men - space aliens who feed on all that green cheese on the moon - are what matters.
Maybe I'm saying the lives of rich people matter. Sadly that does often seem to be the way of the world.
Do people only matter if they are jealous or envious? Or if they are newbies, still "wet behind the ears"?
Foodstuffs may be green if they're unripe but also if they're overripe and have gone mouldy.
"Code green" in hospital lingo is apparently used to call for an emergency evacuation.
I may be walking a thin green line by posting this but if I've offended anyone ... well, I'm a vegetarian and I'd be happy to eat my words.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-30 03:27 pm (UTC)I do like your 'green mouldy' imagery. I mean, we have to care about the life of that sentient green mould presently living in our fridge.