Language is legislation, speech is its code. We do not see the power which is in speech because we forget that all speech is a classification, and that all classifications are oppressive.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
There are times when the power of language is not the power that is needed.
We tend to look through language and not realize how much power language has.
Speech is civilization itself.
There is obviously a power and a truth in action that doesn't lie, which words easily can do.
Language is a weapon of politicians, but language is a weapon in much of human affairs.
People in power have to be careful about what comes out of their mouth. They have to find exactly the right word that can't be attacked.
Speech sounds cannot be understood, delimited, classified and explained except in the light of the tasks which they perform in language.
I think with all my books, language has been their subject as much as anything else. Language can elide or displace or sideline whole groups of people. You can't necessarily change the way language is used, but if it becomes something you're conscious of... that gives you a certain power over it.
Language is political. That's why you and me, my Brother and Sister, that's why we supposed to choke our natural self into the weird, lying, barbarous, unreal, white speech and writing habits that the schools lay down like holy law.
Language exerts hidden power, like the moon on the tides.
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