JAN'S DAILY FRESH RAZZ-A-MA-TAZZ
                     © 2002: JAN COX
                                ***************************

January 9, 2002.
 
 
 

There is always a voice somewhere insisting that: “words mean something” --
which is almost entirely incorrect;
in essence they mean nothing, and in practice, very, very little.
 

The apparent power of words rests in the fact that
they exist in a realm all their own  --  alone --
with nothing to check, counter or oppose their assertions  --   except other words;
no cats to keep rats in line; no mountains to keep valleys honest.
Without the presence of an extrinsic, interrelated entity
a thing can go wild  --   and in this case the thing is words --
and they do indeed run out of control --  right under everyone’s nose –
and no one seemingly knows about it.
 

Men do not individually appear to be aware of this  --
but collectively their behavior clearly shows otherwise,
the only exception to words not meaning anything entirely is in their
mass-agreed-upon specific significance in men’s second reality
within the framework of his invented judicial institutions,
a necessary support to civilization itself.
Men collectively and arbitrarily agree that certain words represent
certain unambiguous desires cum decisions of the collective
the ignoring of which carries certain specific consequences to be executed by
the collective, viz: the group declares:
“One man will not take another man’s food, and if he does,
we will collectively appoint someone to cut off his hand”  --
under these conditions alone can words be said to actually
“mean something” --  the rest of the time –
in their ceaseless, everyday use  --   they mean nothing.
This does not keep people from believing (whatever that word means?!)
that they do;
a man will physically attack another man because (he says)
of words the other man spoke  --  so words must mean something!?!
 

To a mind from which the remnants of childhood oatmeal have been wiped,
(and in actuality, at the substantive level for everyone),
the only words that by their own nature “mean something” are those whose only purpose is to represent an object or activity in the physical world,
but easy observation reveals that less than 2% of human speech is so involved --  the rest of the time the words which flow from men’s mouths
represent nothing that actually exists  --  and thus they mean nothing.
 

Life however, has arranged the neural connections of
ever increasingly civilized, collective humanity to see it differently;
the more civilized you are  --
the more do words which mean nothing  --   mean something;
in savage conditions, everything people there living literally a
day to day survival existence would say would mean something,
while in cultured circumstances, the more civilized you are
the less do any words you utter mean anything;
that is simply how it is,
and even ordinary minds, if the matter is mentioned,
can momentarily drop life’s enforced pretense and acknowledge the truth,
but the rest of everyday existence is a flat out,
verbal betrayal of this knowledge;
men’s words are mercilessly driven to brazenly proclaim their efficacy
in a realm where be naught with actual authority to straighten them out.
 

Hence are humans able to engage in that great sport unique to them  --   arguing;
all there is normally to oppose, refute any word’s claim is another word,
and what grand entertainment this provides;
passionate grappling bouts and no one physically harmed;
vigorous struggles and no one leaves actually defeated;
no one wins  ---   and no one loses  --  and no one seems to notice! --
which is how the faux contests are able to be re-staged anew,
day after day as though nothing out of the ordinary had occurred
in all of the previous encounters.
Like choreographed, meaningless wrestling bouts about which the audience retains no memory, one day to the next;
Vicious X wins the belt tonight from Ferocious Y, but everyone understands
it was scripted and has no permanent or substantive meaning,
and treat the next day’s apparent contests as unencumbered by such:
this is how words manage to survive with their
ipsidixit reputation for significance intact.
 

A person born somewhere genetically outside the
general neural bullpen of collective humanity,
with the corollary desire to see that which others show no interest in,
must sooner-or-some-time-else see words for what they are,
or their frantic arm waving and mass popularity will poke out all of
your potentially good eyes/I’s  --  and keep ‘em poked out.
 

Do not listen to words --  no matter how seductive they seem –
even when they speak to you about learning how to see those special things
you so long to see and understand;

There is something in man which a few can listen to which does not speak;
and it knows the truth for which the few so passionately seek ---
only thing is, it does not know that it knows anything in particular;
you have to keep digging around in there until you suddenly see what
                            it is that it knows   --    then you’ve got it.
                                                       
                     J