Sunday, December 27, 2009

An arbitrary quest for perfection

I happened to overhear a discussion on the hazards of communication. It occurred to me a bit later that communication itself is a hazard albeit, a necessary one. When we communicate ordinary events we use plain words to direct the course of events so as to obtain preferable results. On many occasions though, words have an untenable effect on actions. But words can compensate for the limitations of action and even substitute them when mobility hits a road block.

Supposing you have to explain the meanings of objects, you may be able to explain them even effortlessly through actions. Simple states of mind such as basic emotions can be expressed through body language but there are, you will find, complex states of mind which you cannot express through actions. Even if you try to, you may realize your potential to be a slapstick comedian. Then it strikes you that you simply need words to communicate quickly.

New words, I think load you with novel behaviour and faculties of perception that may not have found place in your sphere of experience had you not been exposed to them. As your vocabulary increases you start experiencing subtle sensations that you can capture only through words. You cannot escape through ignorance because even if you ignore words, they will find you being the converse of what I have said. Either you get verbal exposure or you get experiential exposure thus making verbal suicide impossible.

It is a known fact or thesis that through words you can more or less affect the course of events. You can expose hypocrisy with powerful vocabulary more easily than you can through action whose practical consequences are unaffordable. Words convey through the medium of time and pictures through the medium of space.

But you also seek to perfect through words. With surplus verbal exposure the accurate usage of words can be so overpowering as to take precedence over actions and facts. You realize that perfection through words is that which is evoked, meaning, you experience perfection after verbal usage because of the power that is packed in the words. This power is an auditory impact. Factually though, nothing is perfected. You begin with a quest for factual perfection but end up achieving verbal accuracy only. Such perfection evades facts as facts are limited and arbitrary, both of which are bound by time.

1 comment:

Varun said...

Very well said. The most effective way to communicate something is when the words have the power of experience behind them. Words without experience are just empty. Experience without words is lost to posterity. Brilliant.!