Ethnographic Exercise: Language, Speech and Discourse

Ethnographic Exercise: Words and Power

Concept Map

The event that I have chosen to observe, has to do with a few elements. I went to a class during lunch about a film called the Power of Nightmares, a British film, that was aired on the BBC around the world, but censored here in America. The fact that the film was censored was intriguing. It makes you think, there is something in this film, that people in power in the US do not want people to see. It shows the power that these words have. The film is about how the government, from the Reagan to Bush administration have used tactics of fear to scare the American people, and exercise power over them. The film discuss the similarities between the fundamental Islamic terrorists and the fundamental Neo-Conservatives in the United States. 

I watched the film on the Sierra campus the first time, and re watched the film at home with my father. The concept map is the ideology that the present Bush Administration uses to create fear in the American people and gain control and power. It only takes a small word like terrorist to spur a great deal of reactions. It reflects the ideology of fear, but has a great deal of more meaning and web of complexity. The word terrorism for America after 9/11 has been ingrained in us by the media and the government to mean, someone of Middle Eastern descent, that wants to blow up our buildings, because they hate the freedom that Americans have. Terrorism now goes hand and hand with Osama Bin Laden, and for a great deal of Americans, Iraq. It has created fear and racial tensions in American society. After 9/11 there were hate crimes against anyone who resembled the skin tone of someone of Arabic descent. This idea of terrorism, and the use of it to create fear and norms in our society, is an ignorant one. But it shows the power that words can have. Although, terrorism is a real threat, it does not include all the things that have been ignorantly associated with it now. 

This film is a documentary, and is not propaganda or false, it is just a different look into the idea of terrorism. The use of the word terrorism in itself, is propaganda or can even be considered a meme. it is part of an idea unit or mind virus, for most terrorist was a thing that no one really knew about or even thought about. But as the word was transmitted through the TV into our home and our minds, it was a word that was on our tongues and started to create ideas in our minds, and began to grow. Then we would talk about it within our families and friends, and the ideas and the words would grow, and would take on a life of its own. 

It in essence, was used to gain support of the people and to make people live in fear so they do not ask questions. After 9/11, i remember questioning, the war in Iraq and how that was tied to 9/11, but I was called unpatriotic and looked down upon by my friends. Discourse could not be entered into, with 9/11 and the Iraq war, there were only certain things that could be said or discussed without becoming an outcast or being looked upon as unpatriotic. I was only in high school, but the ideologically control was already evident. It just shows how strongly people can be controlled by words and fear. When I went to the showing of this film, a lot of people got up  and left and were upset about things the film was saying. That shows the strength of the ideology that has been created and the ignorance it can breed. Some people would not allow their reality to be changed by this film.

This directly relates to the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis that are language shapes the way we perceive reality. If we are only given certain words and ideas about something, we can only see the world through those terms. In relation to terrorism. We are told, terrorist are Fundamental Muslim, they are from the Middle East, they hate America and want to harm us. Terrorists want to impose their ideology on us, they hate our freedom and democracy. If we are given these words, that anything that fits into any part of this we become judgemental towards. The fact that these words were given to us, it made it okay for most Americans to go into Iraq, because it is the Middle East and that is were terrorists are from. This shapes how we see the world, how we react to someone that is Muslim or from the Middle East. Words are a powerful thing, it shapes how people view other people, how we view situations, words have the power to take us to war, and words have the power of creating fear. In terms of the Speech Act theory what people say can determine how things happen and have a transformative effect on how others act. It is important to understand the context in which people are using language, is it to change your perspective? To command you to do something or do they have an expectation of you? When looking at language with the idea that it has the ability to shape your reality and perspective, you realize how much control speech and language has in your life. it plays into the role of enculturation and power and control. Subtle words and propaganda that one tacitly experience has a greater act. And people are constantly enacting control over you with only words. 

I think that the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is a theory that works in reality, it is easy to understand, and observe this happen in your own life. The idea that your speech and language shapes your perspective on the reality around you is crazy, but true.  We are limited to think and express ourselves by the words and language we know. For example, my boyfriend is Croatian and that is his first language. Sometimes he wants to express something to me, but he tells me we don't have words in English that can express what he wants to say. Something that would take paragraphs and paragraphs in English, and still couldnt quite describe a feeling they have one word in Croatian to encompass it. Its an idea I sometimes cannot wrap my head around, but it is because my language limits my perspective and shapes what I can think about or even feel. For him, Croatian has a depth in meaning and more words to express emotions than English has, his perception and the language he has to express emotion, is vast!