Language and power a necessity to create a revolution
When we get ready to create a revolution we must redefine the words; there is no way around it. In Genesis, we see Adam being given the power to name things. Through being given the power to name things he is given dominion. There is a connection between naming and dominion, between naming and bringing into reality. When we permit another people to name and define, we permit another people to gain dominion and control over us.
The languages that people learn and speak are most frequently directly related to the power relations between them. Many people will now learn Japanese, as for a while they learned Russian, as for a while they learned German, Latin, etc. Why? Because the people who speak or spoke those languages were or are in ascendance or in power at that or this time. There is no "Good" or "Bad" english or "Good" or "Bad" language; there is a language that is connected to power. People tend to learn first after their native tongue, whatever language is spoken by the people in power. There is a connection between the capacity to have other people speak your languange and to call things by the names you give them, and power. If we wish to assume power then we must assume the capacity to name and define things.
The pyschology of a culture is to a great extent a symbolic precipitant of the kinds of experiences forced upon a group of people by their history. We must recognize the intimate relationship between culture, history and personality. If we do not know history then we do not know our personality. And if the only history we know is other people's history then our personality has been created by that history.
We must recognize this in the case of European history. It is not so much that we know European history, but we are left with some images of it, some residue of it - that we have sense of it - is all the hegemonic European needs to begin to dominate and to control non-European peoples.
By Dr. Amos Wilson