On Bob Dylan’s 1979 album Slow Train Coming is a interesting tune proclaiming our need as humans to serve somebody.  The album is full of religious overtones and serving God is the apparent focus of the song.  After all if you have to serve somebody why not God.

Personally though I wonder if first we should always serve ourselves.  It becomes a bit of a circular argument but perhaps serving ourselves requires us to serve others.

Find the Balloon

I read the other day about an interesting experiment and associated conclusion a post secondary professor conducted with his psychology class.

Each student was asked to blow up a balloon and then write their name on it.  The professor mixed all the balloons in a large open room and tasked the students to find the balloon with their name on it in 5 minutes.  No one was able to complete the task.

Then the professor told everyone to take a balloon and find the owner, within five minutes everyone had their balloon.

The professor concluded there are some things best achieved by relying on others but when you do depend on others good things will come back to you.

Serving the Purpose

Rather than serving somebody perhaps what is best served is your own purpose.  I interpret this as the deeper meaning of the Bob Dylan song as well.

Whether we leverage others, do it ourselves or through some combination of self and others achieving our purpose will bring us satisfaction and joy.

It is unlikely this can be attained without others, per the balloon example help others and let others help you.  The rewards will be worth it.

In his fictional novel titled “1984” which was actually published in 1949 author George Orwell introduced a new language called newspeak.

Orwell’s idea was to invent a language that focused on a political agenda.  The concept has fascinated me since I first read the book in the late 1960’s.

Perception is Power

In essence the idea of using language to control peoples perception of the message is a very powerful idea.  Basically contrary to the popular saying it does matter if you say pot’e’toe or pot’a’toe. Supposedly the same object they could be viewed as different.

I recently saw an example of this (not in the political arena but just day to day) that reminded me how easy perception can be manipulated and what a powerful tool it can be when used to manage others.  (I do wonder if it is ethical though.)

Cubicle or Workstation

Many of those who worked in offices pre-pandemic were housed in cubicle farms, a demeaning and unpleasant concept.   However, when you refer to these same office spaces as personal workstations a much brighter picture is perceived.

Through slight of hand we can change how groups of people feel and react implying by messing around with the words and referring to things  in ways that soften the message even though nothing is changed.

Euphemisms

Learning about the concept of newspeak from George Orwell founded my skepticism and frankly distaste of cases where a mild or indirect word or expression was substituted for one considered to be too harsh .

For me, when a person dies, they are dead, not passed on or gone to a better place.  Facing reality is really important, hiding the truth by speaking indirectly is of little value to anyone.