Impressions
Abstract
Lazy (as Used by Men) … I’ve often realized, not without a sense of disquiet, that talking isn’t easy, that my words often propagate all kinds of misunderstandings once they’ve flown out of my mouth. I’ve also discovered that even a powerful propaganda machine lacks absolute controlling power over understanding and, similarly, sinks repeatedly into the mire of ambiguity ... he’d been an employee of the Country Film Company but had been relieved of his duties due to his exceeding the birth quota. It wasn’t that he’d failed to comprehend the consequences of exceeding the birth quota: … After I’d spoken with him, after I’d turned it over endlessly and uncomprehendingly in my mind, there was only one conclusion I could draw: he operated on another vocabulary system, one in which a great many words transgressed ordinary people’s imaginings. For example, ‘violating law and order’ wasn’t necessarily a bad or an ugly thing to do – quite the contrary, violating law and order was a proof of strength, a privilege of the strong, a crucial source of happiness and glory. …
If the explanation given above is generally correct, then the whole affair comes down to a question of language, to an absurd coincidence of meanings interlocking and short-circuiting. In the end, the law-breaker lost his bowl of rice and paid a high price for one or two extremely ordinary words. The propaganda that the wielders of power directed at him had been entirely useless, had ended at cross-purposes: on encountering a totally alien dictionary, a totally impenetrable pair of ears, … (at 267–271)