The clothing of language

• Plato reckoned that information can be true when it is rationally related to the real reality that is out there (ie to the Platonic ideals).
• Lao Tzu reckoned that the reality that can be described is not the real reality. This is because language cannot do justice to reality.
• Mystics reckon that reality can be intuited when the mind is in a meditative state of non-egoic flow (ie when in a transcendental condition).

In ‘fact’ all beliefs, feelings and intuitions are mind made: and they are developed and sustained using language in a variety of sociocultural settings.

Culture is like mental clothing woven in words – the new born baby learns to wear it. It provides the nurture that complements their nature. But in this case there is no going back. We are social animals that cannot return to being culturally naked.

BUT there is globalisation - and cultures collide. There are many ways to be human. And many more  people are becoming acquaint with a range of options in the nature v nurture debate.

Intellectually honest people can no longer be zealous xenophobes. There may still be them and us but there are expanding horizons which can lead to a state of ‘no boundaries’ (ref Ken Wilber). There is no demonic propaganda but rather thoughtful discussion leading to win/win agreements among like minded souls.

SO – the emperor of global thought (ie public opinion) is fashion conscious and has a wardrobe full of cultural clothes which more or less suitably address the human condition as expressed in a planetary game of Chinese whispers replete with cumulative errors.

BUT we now have Chinese whispers on the internet. There is thus an irrevocable, bottom up groundswell of a new hegemony where ‘truth’ is spoken to elegant power.

AHA – a meme – ‘speaking truth to debunk the hegemony of elegant but elitist power’.