I’m a modern man a man for the
millennium
I’ve been up LinkedIn downloaded I’ve
been inputted an outsource tanto the
downside of upgrading I know the upside
of downsizing I’m a high tech lowlife a
cutting edge stay with the odd bicoastal
multitask and I can give you a gigabyte
in a nanosecond I’m a warm-hearted
heat-seeking hot-wired kuyou customer
I’m boss I am voice-activated in
biodegradable I interface from a
database in my databases in cyberspace
so I’m interactive I’m hyperactive and
from time to time I’m radioactive I’m a
streetwise smart format Top Gun bottom
feeder I wear power ties that I’ll power
lies I take power naps at on victory
laps I’m a raging workaholic or working
rageaholic I got a personal trainer a
personal shopper personal assistant and
a personal agenda you can’t shut me up
you can’t dump me down cuz I’m Thai
listen I’m Wireless
I’m upfront down-home low rent high
maintenance long-lasting built to last
fast-acting high definition and I’ve
been ready I come in all sizes I take a
short position on a long bond in my
revenue stream has its own cash flow my
output is down but my income is up I
read junk
I eat junk food and he jumped me like my
junk bonds I watched rad sports
I’m capital-intensive gender-specific
user friendly and not a liability
I bought a microwave from a mini mall
mini mall I bought a minivan at a mega
store I eat slow food in the fast lane
I’m told free bite-sized user-friendly
ready-to-wear and I come in all sizes
I’ve been pre-washed pre-soaked
precooked preheated pre dried
pre-approved pre-screened and post-dated
freeze-dried vacuum pad and I have an
unlimited broadband capacity that was a
rendition of modern man by comedian
George Carlin did you notice something
or something just a little bit peculiar
about that
a lot of people cab you Larry used in
that piece was advertisement lingo it’s
something that we see on TV or read in
print and you side with this once but
not just that we began to use that
language in our daily life it’s almost
like it’s infiltrated our daily
vocabulary and it has especially in
English because English is
has always been integral to colonial an
imperialist activities something that’s
very visible in our Eurocentric
education system today English has been
a symbol of and continues to be a symbol
of modernity of development of a
particular class and therefore of what
we define as good upbringing amongst
various other things
therefore English has been integral to
the cultural means and cultural aims of
capitalism
what I mean by that is that capitalism
has affected in the past continues to
affect and for the foreseeable future
will affect our vocabulary and this
affected vocabulary helps us internalize
the structures of capitalism I know this
sounds like a bit of a conspiracy theory
which is hold on all right let’s not
jump to conclusions let’s think about
this ten minutes from now
language is a system that permits
thinking we think through language okay
because language helps us formulate
social relations language helps us
categorize things ideas people our
surroundings not just that it’s the way
that the words we use which reflect the
way we look at things also tell us the
way we think about things about certain
ideas people set up a very very good
example of this is in Harry Potter I
don’t know whether JK Rowling meant this
or not but it’s a fantastic example on
the less throughout the 7 books
especially in the first few books a
majority of people refuse to call
Voldemort by his name they call him he
who must not be him
why because quite literally seeing his
name saying those words empower him they
give him power along a similar line
highlighting the power of words and
vocabulary movements of equality have
historically gone out of their way to
reclaim certain words the feminist
movement has tried to reclaim bitch
whore the Black Power movement is
try to reclaim the word nigger now these
had obviously done through reason
because words have power
the first concept I’m going to be using
to talk about what that power is is
called the sapir-whorf hypothesis now
what the sapir-whorf hypothesis says is
that language helps constitute reality
that reality is not what is there but in
fact what we see through our symbols
obviously the symbols are done by a
language therefore language helps us
define people things and ideas it helps
us characterise them at it makes them
distinguishable therefore if a group of
people have different languages that
consider their concepts or notions of
concepts will differ slightly
for example language adds a tremendous
amount of distinguish ability like about
the dimension because calling leave a
dong doesn’t simply mean that I am Vera
it also means that I’m not anybody else
i’ma not juvie I’m not creepy am NOT
Joshua and we’re on the second theory of
concept that I’m going to be using is
called the Thomas theorem now the Thomas
theorem
that the way one looks at reality or
defines reality is real in its
consequences
therefore the interpretation of
situation actually causes an action when
we add the sapir-whorf hypothesis in
Thomas theorem what we get is language
she defined reality and the way you’ve
defined reality is real and its
consequences
that’s the reason why rape jokes
especially where the victim is the
punchline cr7 trivialize the act
that’s why caste abuses are illegal as
for the Constitution that’s why like I
said before social movements of equality
go out of their way to reclaim certain
slows certain insults it’s because the
identities of people are given a
framework to exist equally to exist
within dignity even if that framework is
linguistic the point is after a point in
time that will translate the reality
that we translate with tangible
framework that’s enough language for now
I guess let’s move on to the elephant in
the room capitalism capitalism has
become a truly global system in every
sense of that phase it’s no longer
simply an economic mode of production
its existing in most places in the world
in most fears of our life in art
entertainment culture society religion
politics everywhere it’s everywhere
I believe language has has got a little
part to play here it’s one of the
reasons how or why capitalism has become
so inseparable is because of renaming of
institutional practices by managerial
instruction again
lot of words together sound heavy let’s
use an example to analyze that again I’m
going to be going back to George Karl a
little bit but let’s set the tone what
this example is going to be about is the
national conversation nowadays and also
unfortunately our national excuse
soldiers it’s it’s very obvious that war
is a very very profitable business not
only does it create debt that is there I
mean that has middle – long term
financial reward for predators but it
also gives rise to various subsidiary
businesses we all know about this but in
the actual actor
war the Liberals Percy are the soldiers
capitalism has made us has restricted
our imagination about what these people
go through in war and the effect it has
on them later using a Colin example
around World War one that was a battle
condition it referred to a condition
when your nervous system was always
stressed to the point where it snaps the
condition was called shell shock fast
direct crude honest almost like the
sound of battle itself like shell shock
shell shock a couple of decades later
this condition this very same condition
was called battle fatigue a little
different it lacks a bit of a punch less
direct fatigue is a better word than
shock give it a couple more decades and
this very condition is called
operational exhaustion doesn’t sound
like something that happens to human
beings does it something that happens to
machines operational exhaustion the word
is sterile there’s no humanity left in
it anymore so you see the way this word
was changed it’s the very same concept
but this word was changed over time
which influenced the way we thought
about this concept another example of
institutional practices is a very very
modern contemporary concept it’s the
concept of human capital human capital
I mean economics 101 we study in tenth
and twelfth grade that one of the four
factors of production is labor so labor
has always been commodified the labor
role has been commodified on the human
capital that’s a new development we have
depersonalized
people by and large so the point is that
there has been a lot of institution
renamed the practices and this is
actually populated on a very personal
level an individual level what I mean by
that is for example let’s look at the
idea that I mean and this is a
conversation I’ve been party over I’ve
heard ok in colleges we often are in
schools we often say let’s not think XY
said in our project because they’ll be
an ass will be a liability or the exact
opposite let’s take X Y Z in our group
project because they will be an asset we
good marks and whatnot another example
of this is and all of us again have said
this oh I wasn’t as productive at work
today or I’m not going to get good marks
for this because I didn’t study
efficiently enough you’re talking about
people as assets and liabilities you’re
talking about productivity inefficiency
all of this has come about because a
redefinition of a cons of the concept of
work book according to us now is
generally or you know invariably
economic in nature it’s not just people
doing things neither is it people doing
things to connect with the society
within which they live in by and large
it’s people doing things for money
that’s what work has become let’s look
at another a very very essential part of
human life that we’ve gone out of our
way to commodify education everywhere we
call education and investment I’m going
to be graduating in a few months so I
have this really awkward conversation of
people asking me graduation Chabad
camera and every time they asking about
whether or not I’m going to brought the
study there’s always one question that’s
asked the question is whether or not the
amount I will be investing in my degree
will give me the returns on that degree
that’s a really reductionist way to look
at the education or something as
holistic as dynamic as beautiful as
education it’s become an investment
opportunity a few other words that we
generally I mean that have generally
seeped into our vocabulary our surplus
deficit
opportunity cost cost benefit analysis
utility revenue you know these words
have become a part of our daily dialogue
opportunity cost is a particularly funny
one I’ve overheard people say or talk
about the opportunity cost of love or
the returns on a personal relationship
if you think that’s odd I’m mentioning
opportunity cost in particular because
just two years ago at this very event on
this very platform in this very College
there was a speaker that spoke about
amongst other things of course the
opportunity cost of love so the fact
that these words are used in daily
vocabulary
perhaps not as outlandish as it was ten
minutes ago let’s move on to and on the
concept that that I believe has implicit
model connotations also investment and
expenditure whenever we see the news you
always see these two words being thrown
around a lot in public policy debates
and what not the model connotation is
investment is a financial opportunity
and expenditure is the lack of financial
opportunity it’s peculiar how investment
is always used in relation to defense
contracts expenditure is always when you
talk about giving the population of the
country’s food health job sanitation etc
subsidies you know all of this is
expenditure the point is that when we
talk about investment and expenditure in
those very terms we are reproducing this
discourse this discourse and the model
connotations attached to it you know
we’re we’re not realizing the power that
we are drawing from the words that we
are using or the influence they’re
having not just on our thinking but you
know like I said the entire discourse
it’s because we’ve attached these
connotations but let it not seem like
I’m discounting the economics behind
public policy no I’m not even
discounting that other forms of
socialization to exist I’m not doing any
of that I am simply trying to highlight
the role that language plays
another idea that I’ve already mentioned
is productivity and efficiency
underpaying mustards giving them not
giving them regular contracts not giving
them Social Security benefits all of
this comes under the generally accepted
idea of productivity or efficiency but
we don’t question that growth another
word that we love to use and is thrown
around often election season it’s going
to be thrown around again growth is
inherently non-inclusive there are
people that are part of growth to
various degrees obviously and there are
people that are not a part of the growth
of Grodi
these two groups are looked at very very
differently and they’re very tangible
differences between them differences of
consumption but we never really revisit
these concepts when it comes to
consumption perhaps is that is the most
integral question that I perhaps we’ll
be raising today that is the question of
our identities our identities have
become consumer identities everything we
do our daily life our routine
interactions with people have become
commercial transactions teachers
provides a service for a particular feel
like I said parents invest in their
children’s education to get returns on
it or at least you know help their
children get returns on it up primarily
our primary identities are our consumer
identities now therefore we’ve come to a
point where new liberalisation and
capitalism are inseparable from a common
sense understanding of life itself let’s
move to another point I’d like to
highlight this is that I feel capitalism
is affected on morality when we were
young and I guess that goes to a couple
of generations prior to mine too we were
almost universally taught sharing is
caring now we told greed is good false
gods tell us to stay hungry stay foolish
sharing scaring is an ideas become
almost obsolete in the faced of face of
philosophy such as Iran that glorify
self-interest and individualism let me
back
myself up with some researcher there was
a professor called Patricia Greenfield
of UCLA she conducted a study of 1.5
million American and British books
between the years 1800 in 2000 they
analyzed the shift of vocabulary in
those books over those 200 years the
words that we use became more
individualist became more acquisitive
there were words I mean there was an
increase in the word so in the likes of
words like get choose unique individual
self amongst others so and we’re talking
about American and the u.s. sorry the US
and the UK here so very obviously there
was a transition in the socio-economic
systems that existed there and this
transition was reflected in the
vocabulary not just reflected in the
vocabulary the point is now we’ve come
to internalize these ideas so now this
language this vocabulary is upholding
those systems is upholding is helping us
internally is helping us naturalize
these ideas that we are all innately
selfish that were all innately
individualistic beings but the point is
we’re not the point is that these ideas
were created very very recently this
point the point is that these ideas were
created artificially neoliberalism and
vocabulary have a relationship where if
it’s not just one affecting the other
it’s not capitalism affecting our
vocabulary only it’s our vocabulary
helping sustain these structures the
point is that we we need to realize that
the words we use have a certain power
within them and we need to be aware of
this power we need to realize that a lot
of things we take as given earlier our
morality our our language the social
structures that are around us our
reality by and large has been
constructed it is not intrinsic it is
not in name none of this is natural
another world is possible
thank you
you
millennium
I’ve been up LinkedIn downloaded I’ve
been inputted an outsource tanto the
downside of upgrading I know the upside
of downsizing I’m a high tech lowlife a
cutting edge stay with the odd bicoastal
multitask and I can give you a gigabyte
in a nanosecond I’m a warm-hearted
heat-seeking hot-wired kuyou customer
I’m boss I am voice-activated in
biodegradable I interface from a
database in my databases in cyberspace
so I’m interactive I’m hyperactive and
from time to time I’m radioactive I’m a
streetwise smart format Top Gun bottom
feeder I wear power ties that I’ll power
lies I take power naps at on victory
laps I’m a raging workaholic or working
rageaholic I got a personal trainer a
personal shopper personal assistant and
a personal agenda you can’t shut me up
you can’t dump me down cuz I’m Thai
listen I’m Wireless
I’m upfront down-home low rent high
maintenance long-lasting built to last
fast-acting high definition and I’ve
been ready I come in all sizes I take a
short position on a long bond in my
revenue stream has its own cash flow my
output is down but my income is up I
read junk
I eat junk food and he jumped me like my
junk bonds I watched rad sports
I’m capital-intensive gender-specific
user friendly and not a liability
I bought a microwave from a mini mall
mini mall I bought a minivan at a mega
store I eat slow food in the fast lane
I’m told free bite-sized user-friendly
ready-to-wear and I come in all sizes
I’ve been pre-washed pre-soaked
precooked preheated pre dried
pre-approved pre-screened and post-dated
freeze-dried vacuum pad and I have an
unlimited broadband capacity that was a
rendition of modern man by comedian
George Carlin did you notice something
or something just a little bit peculiar
about that
a lot of people cab you Larry used in
that piece was advertisement lingo it’s
something that we see on TV or read in
print and you side with this once but
not just that we began to use that
language in our daily life it’s almost
like it’s infiltrated our daily
vocabulary and it has especially in
English because English is
has always been integral to colonial an
imperialist activities something that’s
very visible in our Eurocentric
education system today English has been
a symbol of and continues to be a symbol
of modernity of development of a
particular class and therefore of what
we define as good upbringing amongst
various other things
therefore English has been integral to
the cultural means and cultural aims of
capitalism
what I mean by that is that capitalism
has affected in the past continues to
affect and for the foreseeable future
will affect our vocabulary and this
affected vocabulary helps us internalize
the structures of capitalism I know this
sounds like a bit of a conspiracy theory
which is hold on all right let’s not
jump to conclusions let’s think about
this ten minutes from now
language is a system that permits
thinking we think through language okay
because language helps us formulate
social relations language helps us
categorize things ideas people our
surroundings not just that it’s the way
that the words we use which reflect the
way we look at things also tell us the
way we think about things about certain
ideas people set up a very very good
example of this is in Harry Potter I
don’t know whether JK Rowling meant this
or not but it’s a fantastic example on
the less throughout the 7 books
especially in the first few books a
majority of people refuse to call
Voldemort by his name they call him he
who must not be him
why because quite literally seeing his
name saying those words empower him they
give him power along a similar line
highlighting the power of words and
vocabulary movements of equality have
historically gone out of their way to
reclaim certain words the feminist
movement has tried to reclaim bitch
whore the Black Power movement is
try to reclaim the word nigger now these
had obviously done through reason
because words have power
the first concept I’m going to be using
to talk about what that power is is
called the sapir-whorf hypothesis now
what the sapir-whorf hypothesis says is
that language helps constitute reality
that reality is not what is there but in
fact what we see through our symbols
obviously the symbols are done by a
language therefore language helps us
define people things and ideas it helps
us characterise them at it makes them
distinguishable therefore if a group of
people have different languages that
consider their concepts or notions of
concepts will differ slightly
for example language adds a tremendous
amount of distinguish ability like about
the dimension because calling leave a
dong doesn’t simply mean that I am Vera
it also means that I’m not anybody else
i’ma not juvie I’m not creepy am NOT
Joshua and we’re on the second theory of
concept that I’m going to be using is
called the Thomas theorem now the Thomas
theorem
that the way one looks at reality or
defines reality is real in its
consequences
therefore the interpretation of
situation actually causes an action when
we add the sapir-whorf hypothesis in
Thomas theorem what we get is language
she defined reality and the way you’ve
defined reality is real and its
consequences
that’s the reason why rape jokes
especially where the victim is the
punchline cr7 trivialize the act
that’s why caste abuses are illegal as
for the Constitution that’s why like I
said before social movements of equality
go out of their way to reclaim certain
slows certain insults it’s because the
identities of people are given a
framework to exist equally to exist
within dignity even if that framework is
linguistic the point is after a point in
time that will translate the reality
that we translate with tangible
framework that’s enough language for now
I guess let’s move on to the elephant in
the room capitalism capitalism has
become a truly global system in every
sense of that phase it’s no longer
simply an economic mode of production
its existing in most places in the world
in most fears of our life in art
entertainment culture society religion
politics everywhere it’s everywhere
I believe language has has got a little
part to play here it’s one of the
reasons how or why capitalism has become
so inseparable is because of renaming of
institutional practices by managerial
instruction again
lot of words together sound heavy let’s
use an example to analyze that again I’m
going to be going back to George Karl a
little bit but let’s set the tone what
this example is going to be about is the
national conversation nowadays and also
unfortunately our national excuse
soldiers it’s it’s very obvious that war
is a very very profitable business not
only does it create debt that is there I
mean that has middle – long term
financial reward for predators but it
also gives rise to various subsidiary
businesses we all know about this but in
the actual actor
war the Liberals Percy are the soldiers
capitalism has made us has restricted
our imagination about what these people
go through in war and the effect it has
on them later using a Colin example
around World War one that was a battle
condition it referred to a condition
when your nervous system was always
stressed to the point where it snaps the
condition was called shell shock fast
direct crude honest almost like the
sound of battle itself like shell shock
shell shock a couple of decades later
this condition this very same condition
was called battle fatigue a little
different it lacks a bit of a punch less
direct fatigue is a better word than
shock give it a couple more decades and
this very condition is called
operational exhaustion doesn’t sound
like something that happens to human
beings does it something that happens to
machines operational exhaustion the word
is sterile there’s no humanity left in
it anymore so you see the way this word
was changed it’s the very same concept
but this word was changed over time
which influenced the way we thought
about this concept another example of
institutional practices is a very very
modern contemporary concept it’s the
concept of human capital human capital
I mean economics 101 we study in tenth
and twelfth grade that one of the four
factors of production is labor so labor
has always been commodified the labor
role has been commodified on the human
capital that’s a new development we have
depersonalized
people by and large so the point is that
there has been a lot of institution
renamed the practices and this is
actually populated on a very personal
level an individual level what I mean by
that is for example let’s look at the
idea that I mean and this is a
conversation I’ve been party over I’ve
heard ok in colleges we often are in
schools we often say let’s not think XY
said in our project because they’ll be
an ass will be a liability or the exact
opposite let’s take X Y Z in our group
project because they will be an asset we
good marks and whatnot another example
of this is and all of us again have said
this oh I wasn’t as productive at work
today or I’m not going to get good marks
for this because I didn’t study
efficiently enough you’re talking about
people as assets and liabilities you’re
talking about productivity inefficiency
all of this has come about because a
redefinition of a cons of the concept of
work book according to us now is
generally or you know invariably
economic in nature it’s not just people
doing things neither is it people doing
things to connect with the society
within which they live in by and large
it’s people doing things for money
that’s what work has become let’s look
at another a very very essential part of
human life that we’ve gone out of our
way to commodify education everywhere we
call education and investment I’m going
to be graduating in a few months so I
have this really awkward conversation of
people asking me graduation Chabad
camera and every time they asking about
whether or not I’m going to brought the
study there’s always one question that’s
asked the question is whether or not the
amount I will be investing in my degree
will give me the returns on that degree
that’s a really reductionist way to look
at the education or something as
holistic as dynamic as beautiful as
education it’s become an investment
opportunity a few other words that we
generally I mean that have generally
seeped into our vocabulary our surplus
deficit
opportunity cost cost benefit analysis
utility revenue you know these words
have become a part of our daily dialogue
opportunity cost is a particularly funny
one I’ve overheard people say or talk
about the opportunity cost of love or
the returns on a personal relationship
if you think that’s odd I’m mentioning
opportunity cost in particular because
just two years ago at this very event on
this very platform in this very College
there was a speaker that spoke about
amongst other things of course the
opportunity cost of love so the fact
that these words are used in daily
vocabulary
perhaps not as outlandish as it was ten
minutes ago let’s move on to and on the
concept that that I believe has implicit
model connotations also investment and
expenditure whenever we see the news you
always see these two words being thrown
around a lot in public policy debates
and what not the model connotation is
investment is a financial opportunity
and expenditure is the lack of financial
opportunity it’s peculiar how investment
is always used in relation to defense
contracts expenditure is always when you
talk about giving the population of the
country’s food health job sanitation etc
subsidies you know all of this is
expenditure the point is that when we
talk about investment and expenditure in
those very terms we are reproducing this
discourse this discourse and the model
connotations attached to it you know
we’re we’re not realizing the power that
we are drawing from the words that we
are using or the influence they’re
having not just on our thinking but you
know like I said the entire discourse
it’s because we’ve attached these
connotations but let it not seem like
I’m discounting the economics behind
public policy no I’m not even
discounting that other forms of
socialization to exist I’m not doing any
of that I am simply trying to highlight
the role that language plays
another idea that I’ve already mentioned
is productivity and efficiency
underpaying mustards giving them not
giving them regular contracts not giving
them Social Security benefits all of
this comes under the generally accepted
idea of productivity or efficiency but
we don’t question that growth another
word that we love to use and is thrown
around often election season it’s going
to be thrown around again growth is
inherently non-inclusive there are
people that are part of growth to
various degrees obviously and there are
people that are not a part of the growth
of Grodi
these two groups are looked at very very
differently and they’re very tangible
differences between them differences of
consumption but we never really revisit
these concepts when it comes to
consumption perhaps is that is the most
integral question that I perhaps we’ll
be raising today that is the question of
our identities our identities have
become consumer identities everything we
do our daily life our routine
interactions with people have become
commercial transactions teachers
provides a service for a particular feel
like I said parents invest in their
children’s education to get returns on
it or at least you know help their
children get returns on it up primarily
our primary identities are our consumer
identities now therefore we’ve come to a
point where new liberalisation and
capitalism are inseparable from a common
sense understanding of life itself let’s
move to another point I’d like to
highlight this is that I feel capitalism
is affected on morality when we were
young and I guess that goes to a couple
of generations prior to mine too we were
almost universally taught sharing is
caring now we told greed is good false
gods tell us to stay hungry stay foolish
sharing scaring is an ideas become
almost obsolete in the faced of face of
philosophy such as Iran that glorify
self-interest and individualism let me
back
myself up with some researcher there was
a professor called Patricia Greenfield
of UCLA she conducted a study of 1.5
million American and British books
between the years 1800 in 2000 they
analyzed the shift of vocabulary in
those books over those 200 years the
words that we use became more
individualist became more acquisitive
there were words I mean there was an
increase in the word so in the likes of
words like get choose unique individual
self amongst others so and we’re talking
about American and the u.s. sorry the US
and the UK here so very obviously there
was a transition in the socio-economic
systems that existed there and this
transition was reflected in the
vocabulary not just reflected in the
vocabulary the point is now we’ve come
to internalize these ideas so now this
language this vocabulary is upholding
those systems is upholding is helping us
internally is helping us naturalize
these ideas that we are all innately
selfish that were all innately
individualistic beings but the point is
we’re not the point is that these ideas
were created very very recently this
point the point is that these ideas were
created artificially neoliberalism and
vocabulary have a relationship where if
it’s not just one affecting the other
it’s not capitalism affecting our
vocabulary only it’s our vocabulary
helping sustain these structures the
point is that we we need to realize that
the words we use have a certain power
within them and we need to be aware of
this power we need to realize that a lot
of things we take as given earlier our
morality our our language the social
structures that are around us our
reality by and large has been
constructed it is not intrinsic it is
not in name none of this is natural
another world is possible
thank you
you
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