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martinh@islandnet.com (Martin Hunt)
wrote: >Monica Pignotti
<Pignotti@worldnet.att.net> wrote: >>Diane Richardson wrote: >>> I am suggesting that your use of loaded
language to describe Professor Hadden is e.vidence that you refuse to apply critical thought to
the ideas he presents. Margaret Singer states that the use of
derogatory names (e.g., wog) serves as reinforcement to the groupthink
mentality. >>Not all name calling is loaded language. You
obviously don't understand what the term means. I understand precisely what the term means, Monica. >>Loaded language, as she describes it, occurs within the specific context of a cult to keep a person obedient to an authoritarian structure and a charismatic leader. It's interesting that you've chosen to cut my quote from Singer's
book. >A concrete example is in order. The word
"Ethics" is a good example of what Lifton et al was talking about. I don't believe that's what Lifton meant at all by his phrase. I
quote from page 429 of Lifton's book "Thought Reform and the
Psychology of Totalism" (Norton, 1961):
"Loading the Language The language of the totalist environment is characterized by the
thought-terminating cliche. The most far-reaching and complex of
human problems are compressed into brief, highly reductive,
definitive-sounding phrases, easily memorized and easily expressed.
These become the start and finish of any ideological analysis. In
thought reform, for instance, the phrase "bourgeois mentality"
is used
to encompass and critically dismiss ordinarily troublesome concerns
like the quest for individual expression, the exploration of
alternative ideas, and the search for perspective and balance in
political judgments. And in addition to their function as
interpretive shortcuts, these cliches become what Richard Weaver has
called 'ultimate terms': either 'god terms,' representative of
ultimate good; or 'devil terms,' representative of ultimate evil.
. . . [examples deleted] . . . Totalist language, then, is
repetitiously centered on all-encompassing jargon, prematurely
abstract, highly categorical, relentlessly judging, and to anyone but
its most devoted advocate, deadly dull: in Lionel Trilling's phrase,
'the language of nonthought.'"
>Scns are told by their ethics officers or MAAs to "keep their ethics in", and they
are and exhorted to do so by Hubbard, and punished if they do not. But what is "ethics" in Scientology? We're all familiar with
the regular English definition, but in the cult it's meaning is altered. Ethics is that which keeps the money flowing, keeps the
"technology" (also redefined) working, keeps Scientology expanding at all costs, regardless of the impact on individuals or society. This steamroller definition of ethics is so far out of the ordinary, that it may as well be replaced with "criminal conspiracy". The
exhortations roughly translate as "keep the criminal conspiracy of Scientology going." That's a redefinition of a word, not an example of loaded language perse. While I can understand why you choose to categorize Hubbard's
redefinitions of common words as loaded language, such redefinitions
were not included in Lifton's original thesis. Lifton continues:
"As in other aspects of totalism, this loading may provide an initial
sense of insight and security, eventually followed by uneasiness.
This uneasiness may result in a retreat into a rigid orthodoxy in
which an individual shouts the ideological jargon all the louder in
order to demonstrate his conformity, hide his own dilemma and his
despair, and protect himself from the fear and guilt he would feel
should he attempt to use words and phrases other than the correct
ones."
I believe the epithets currently being shouted on this newsgroup, such
as "cult whore." "cult apologist," "ivory tower
academician," "paid
cult dupe," "moral coward," etc. are excellent examples of
loaded
language. Diane Richardson
referen@bway.net |
