The Living Word

Extract

During the last thirty years the exploitation of language by the linotype, radio and cinema has made words cheap, obscured their meaning and dulled our perceptions. Our idea of goodness is likely to be haunted by a phantasm of Guiness, and if it becomes coterminous with Guiness it becomes false. Our understanding of the difference between glamour and beauty is likely to be hazy, not only because of film stars, for Blackpool and the Scottish Highlands are both described as glamorous. We live in a world where sound in general and words in particular are scattered about with insensate prodigality and disregard for the consequences, and we cannot fail to become in some degree insensitive to the meaning and value of words.

Words were created to be the means of conveying thought. How often do they convey thought and how often only ‘sound and fury signifying nothing.’ The popularity of a slogan lies more in its sound than in its meaning; you can always lead the crowd by an attractive noise, and if you are unscrupulous by an evil meaning noise. While it is possible for a slogan to enshrine a gem of wisdom it is also possible for a slogan to be gibberish. When the press makes its appeal through such noise all stimulus of thought is killed, the channels of intellect are silted up with a deposit of jargon and cliches and we lose the power to distinguish between sound and significance. So our thoughts become muddled and consequently false.