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Language and Consciousness
The average IQ of the world’s population is decreasing and one of the causes is language impoverishment. Several studies show in fact the correlation between decreasing lexical knowledge (and impoverishment of the language) and the ability to process and formulate a complex thought.
The gradual disappearance of time (jointive, imperfect, compound forms of the future, past participation) gives birth to a thought almost always to the present, limited to the moment: incapable of projections in time. Fewer words and fewer associated verbs imply less ability to express emotions and less possibility to process a thought because the poorer the language, the more scarce the thought is.
History is full of examples and many books (1984 by George Orwell; Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury) have told how all totalitarian regimes have always hindered thought through a reduction in the number and meaning of words. If there are no thoughts, there are no critical thoughts. And there is no thought without words.
~ Christophe Clavé
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Ignorance is all around us, arrogant and justified…It’s very self assured…it asserts its dominance in the politician’s speech. And knowledge, fragile and changing, always threatened, full of self doubt, is one of the last refuges of utopia.. Understanding is the transformation of…
