Word of the Week
September 20, 2023
Influence
I. What does it mean?
(verb) To have an effect on the way that someone behaves or thinks, especially by giving them an example to follow
II. Where does it come from?
A compound of "in" meaning "into," and "fluere" meaning "to flow". Until the 1650s it was applied as a noun, formerly as an astrological term to refer to the streaming etherial power from the stars that, when in certain positions, act upon one's character or destiny.
III. When is it (un)used?
The range of senses in Middle English was non-personal, immaterial and unobservable, referential to any outflowing of energy. From the 13th century, influence was linked to the stars, and by the 14th century, evolved to refer to energy from the flow of elements like water.
That the range of senses could be personal, and that one individual could have the capacity of producing effects on others, only entered language in the 17th century. Since then, influence as a verb, referential to one person's power over another, instead of noun, referential to the ephemeral, has been steadily increasing.
IV. Why would I hear about it?
The power of intelligent media to influence politics, economics and the social world is well recognised. Whether that same media has the power to change beliefs is still out.
The algorithms powering Meta's products like Facebook and Instagram, Alphabet's search engine Google, or Chinese owned TikTok, have all been in the cross hairs of lawmakers, activists and regulators for years. Many have called for the algorithms to be abolished to stem the spread of polarising misinformation or damaging social addiction.
Recent studies suggest that while these platforms influence discourse, they do not seismically change consumer beliefs.
A powerful dissemination and curation machine? Certainly. An influence of energy akin to the stars? Questionable.
V. How could I think about it?
Language and culture are symbiotic. The two inform each other. The widening vortex of meaning ascribed to the ephemeral - be that belief in the stars, the plant of the gods - gave way for the language of influence to fall from a higher power to a personal power. So it is true that with the rise of secularism, humanism and science, we saw influence by the stars above reassigned to influence by the stars on our screens.
The flow of force from influence presupposes a power ascribed to the source of the influence. If this is true, then perhaps we are not empty vessels, helpless against the flow of information that streams upon us from our media or our mouths. Instead, we have the power to consciously or otherwise ascribe that source a power by choosing to believe in that which we want to be influenced by. Aligning belief to value to senses may be the most powerful way to influence our own behaviours, characters and destinies.
Do you believe in the forces that influence you?
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September 13, 2023
Brave
I. What does it mean?
(adjective) Willing to do things that are difficult, dangerous or painful; not afraid.
II. Where does it come from?
From the 15th Century French "brave" and Italian "bravo", meaning "splendid, valiant, bold", it's roots are unclear. It likely stems from the medieval latin "bravus"meaning "cutthroat".
III. When is it (un)used?
The application of the word is highly culturally contextual. While French, Italian and Spanish 15th Century origins privilege "valiance" and "courage", Old English applies "rashness", "tempest" and even "depravity" to its meaning.
The concept of courage through danger appears to conflate the two meanings, though its popular use is more correlatively linked to popular literature than it is to world events.
IV. Why would I hear about it?
There is no shortage of difficulty, danger and pain. Nor is there a shortage of fear. There are moments in time that bind us where the human spirit triumphs over both. The twenty-second anniversary of September 11, marked by twin rainbows over the World Trade Centre sites on Monday, bound in a breath the bravery of the collective human spirit from that day in 2001.
Mayor Eric Adams, who was serving as a New York police lieutenant in 2001, reflected this week: "The greatest thing about New York City in America was not what happened on 9/11, but what happened on 9/12. We got up, teachers taught, builders built, and we continued to show we were not going to bend or break."
Today, that bravery must be told and retold to the 100 million Americans not yet born on 9/12/01, but who rose on 9/12/23 with the same spirit.
V. How could I think about it?
It was said that courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man, said Nelson Mandela, is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.
Perhaps bravery is not in bold cutthroat noise as the Old English suggests, nor in thunderous valour as the French alludes. Perhaps bravery is the silent splendour of perseverance. It is the humility of the human spirit that says I am both unimportant and essential. I will rise again, again, again. When we stack these as habits, together we forge a braver kind.
What small act of bravery can you practice today?
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September 6, 2023
Patience
I. What does it mean?
(noun) The ability to stay calm and accept a delay or something difficult without complaining
II. Where does it come from?
An abstract noun from the latin "patientia" which means "the quality of suffering or enduring; submission". It evolved from the adjective "patientem" meaning "bearing, supporting; suffering, enduring, permitting; tolerant," but also "firm, unyielding, hard", and was first taken to apply equally to persons as to rivers.
III. When is it (un)used?
Literally meaning "the quality of suffering" in its 12th Century inception, the conjugated meaning "of quiet or calmness (in waiting for suffering)" was first adopted in 14th Century nomenclature.
The 20th century neither popularised this quality, nor glorified its being met with equanimity. In fact, the current frequency of use was last replicated 120 years ago, after which time "patience" has been in steady decline.
IV. Why would I hear about it?
The practice of patience is the modernists' antihero. It is trite because it is true. Our world is one of instant gratification. In such a world waiting is not seen as an ability to be crafted but a complacency to be maligned.
Success is doing the reasonable thing longer than most are willing. It must be trained not tried. In a world we queue for social media stars to capture a reel, new brands are shifting norms with "slow" fashion; sustainability at a price the Gen Z capitalist is willing to front. As Mathilda Djerf launched her first runway at New York Fashion Week, she set a tone where sustainability has a cost, patience is a value that has value, and people are prepared to wait to belong to a community, and pay.
V. How could I think about it?
Stubborness and grace are adjacent rooms in the house of patience; a house of virtue. The difference is whether the home's foundations are forged from ego or equanimity.
As life abates darkness, it invites us to wait with firmness or fluidity. The ego will index to endurance, firmness, and resistance and call it virtue. The equanimous mind will index to support, grace, and movement and call it nothing.
Two truths can be held at the same time. Vipassana Dhamma teaches that equanimity is not about reacting, but considering; not deprivation but compassion; not resistance, but love. It follows that both states - stubborness and grace - can liberate from suffering itself if both are free from reaction, forged in observation, and born to patience.
Where can you liberate yourself from suffering through the practice of patience?
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August 30, 2023
Success
I. What does it mean?
(verb) To achieve something; to have the result or effect that was intended
II. Where does it come from?
A compound of "sub" (next to, after) and "cedere" (go, move). From Latin "succedere" meaning "an advance, a coming up".
III. When is it (un)used?
The inception of the word in the 1530s meant "result, outcome", but it took 50 years to ascribe to that meaning "accomplishment (of results)". Three centuries later, and accomplishment was further assigned to "a person or thing". To succeed came to mean a person or thing's accomplishment.
In 19c French literature, success was almost unanimously ascribed to art, not ego. "Succes de scandale" ascribed art dependent on its scandalous character. By the turn of 20c, the attachment of personhood and accomplishment to results was so strong, success was synonymised as virtue. The "moral flabbiness" of such an origin caught eyes of academics aware of the etymology, but the desire to name and claim results succeeded.
IV. Why would I hear about it?
English language synomised accomplishment with outcome, and then attached its ego to result. We call that result "success".
Sport exemplifies "success"; be that a movement to results, accomplishment of outcomes, or a virtue assignable to an individual. The FIFA Women's World Cup is a shining example.
If we take the original latin root, those who succeeded in the World Cup stacked and layered training habits to move the team forwards. To succeed, it follows, was in the training and process toward results, not simply the accomplishment of them. Enter the US Women's team, who remained scoreless for one of the longest droughts in their World Cup campaigns, but burn as an undeniably bright and bar-shattering star in the sporting galaxy.
If we take success as accomplishment, then it is only met when trial meets tribulation, and is forged in victory. Enter Australia's newest national heroes, the Matildas. The team accomplished incredible upsets in their campaign with the grace and dignity of superlative warriors, but ultimately did not take the crown.
If we take success as many of us do in modernity, then it is an outcome tied to a person or group, be that by scandal or otherwise. Enter not just the Spanish team, who played nobly to victory, but their Chief, now shrouded in scandal, but incontrovertibly successful.
We may rightly ask: if success is a virtue, are we right in how we decree success (or are we morally flabby)?
V. How could I think about it?
If success is about the movement toward a result, then it will never be found in the outcome. If we can divorce our egos from accomplishment, and sever virtue from that outcome, we strip success back to something we can not only control but gain power from.
In the inverse, when we attach our ego to outcome and assign our value as our achievement, we outsource our power and we remove ourselves from its virtue. We do this every day, apparently willingly, always paradoxically. We are not what we produce, yet we call that our success. And if we are what we accomplish, that does not make us virtuous. What we produce is definitionally not who we are, but what resulted from us. Success, then, never becomes us.
Where can you reassign your value to the quality of the input and not the gravitas of the output?
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August 23, 2023
Integrate
I. What does it mean?
(verb) To combine two or more things so that they work together
II. Where does it come from?
A compound of "integrare" (make whole) and "tangere" (to touch). From Latin "integratus" meaning "to render whole, to bring together the parts of"
III. When is it (un)used?
While the word dates back to the 1630s, the meaning "put together parts or elements and combine them into a whole" originated in 1802. This concept of (re)constitution to the whole was extended in the 1940s with the steady increase of "segregation", a back formation of integration.
Post World War II, the rise of "integration" and decline of "segregation" in nomenclature correlated with the popularisation of "integrity" as a value and verb in Western language. The popularisation and weaponisation of wholeness and integration remains persistent in etymology.
IV. Why would I hear about it?
The process of combining two elements to make a whole presupposes two things; first, that totality is possible, and secondly, that human touch can bring together the constituent parts of totality, to their totality.
While it is well opined that segregation is a vehicle through which poverty is transmitted and reproduced, integration requires the enormous and perhaps insuperable ability of the human hand of policy to avoid its own human follies, replete with the political and logistical errors of past.
As integrationist politics re-enters the US political foray, we may rightly ask: Who is afraid of integrationist policy?
V. How could I think about it?
Plato explores the pursuit of wholeness in the speech of Aristophanes in the Symposium. The premise is that in original nature, humans are whole, split in two when their ambition and strength catch the ire of the Gods. 'Love' is the name for our pursuit of wholeness, for our desire to be complete.
Whole for whole's sake is not of itself the goal of love; it is the capture of the true strength of parts in balance. Can we segregate or divorce that which was never in balance to begin with? Can we integrate participles of the whole through love alone, devoid of the follies of human nature?
How can you integrate the parts of yourself through love?
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August 16, 2023
Wonder
I. What does it mean?
(verb) A feeling of surprise and admiration that you have when you see or experience something beautiful, unusual, or unexpected
II. Where does it come from?
In old English wunder meant a marvelous thing, miracle, object of astonishment
III. When is it (un)used?
Either the world is filled with more wonder, or humans enjoy, or need, to ascribe it such meaning. "Wonder" and it's permutations have increased in social nomenclature over the last 100 years, and continue to do so. The traditional houses of wonder - those of organised religion and woship - are in decline. The celebration of wonder, whether through mindfulness, nature, randomness, or otherwise, seems to be not only innately human, but inherently important to our survival.
IV. Why would I hear about it?
There is a thought gaining increasing support that "traditional schools, the education system, and even our way of raising children, replaces curiosity with compliance". When obedience preys on creativity it eats the sword it fights with. In an age of knowable rules, human distinction is born in feeding the brain what it wants to learn. It is born in the celebration of the childlike awe of life itself.
Enter the wonder school. A new school in Wichita flipping traditional curriculum on its head with a Socratic appreciation of learning for learnings sake.
V. How could I think about it?
When we expect perfection, we live in polarity with wonder. Perfection is knowable, reconcilable, rational, and an expectation. While it is well conceived that wisdom begins in wonder, our education and professional systems hero perfect outcomes as the highest form. Perfect grades, perfect outcomes, perfect records.
What if our systems privileged wonder? Wonderful curiosity, wonderful inputs, wonderful legacies. What choices would we make differently, for our children and for ourselves? What fears might we release if we had the freedom to wonder?
What would you do differently if you freed yourself to wonder?
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August 9, 2023
August
I. What does it mean?
(adjective) Impressive; making you feel respect.
II. Where does it come from?
From the Latin Augustus, meaning "consecrated, venerable, majestic, magnificent, noble"
III. When is it (un)used?
Beyond marking the eighth month of the Roman calendar, the adjectival application of the word has steadily increased over the last twenty years despite remaining colloquially cringe. Sharing the latin root aug* meaning "to increase", it refers to the preoccupation with the elevated, noble and consecrated. The offices held by the august personage of the zeitgeist remain closely correlated to institutions of power (the church, the parliament, the court). The personalities and politics remain distinctly different.
IV. Why would I hear about it?
Donald Trump, one America's most august personalities, was arraigned last week for a a third indictment. Even as he sped out of the Federal Court on Friday, he led his Republican rivals for the 2024 presidential nomination by wide margins.
Federal prosecutors will seek to hold Trump to account for what they argue is a "refusal to adhere to core democratic principles". The trial takes place on hallowed ground now shaken, the foot of the Capitol, at the intersection of personhood, performance and politics.
V. How could I think about it?
We increase through the impression we make, the venerability we deserve, and the magnificence in which we are perceived. It follows then, that we are as much how we are seen to be as who we are. The way to grow may be to show, and to be shown.
If this matters to us, there are lessons to be gleaned from those we in turn respect. Why do we follow who we follow? An office of control is an easy outward signal of something the mass deems venerable. When our confidence in that office flounders or fails, does our respect still follow with the person who held it? If it does not, interrogation is warranted: the innate quality of power is not synonymous with the fact of control. We owe ourselves precision in understanding why we esteem what we esteem, if we are to in turn command august reputation.
How can you centre the qualities of those you hold in august esteem to amplify yourself?
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August 2, 2023
Imagination
I. What does it mean?
(noun) The ability to create pictures in your mind; the part of your mind that does this.
II. Where does it come from?
A compound of "imago" (image, likeness) and "imitari "(to copy, imitate).
III. When is it (un)used?
The steady increase of "imagination" in social dialogue has returned the word to a frequency only matched in the 1860s. Both were periods defined by seismic socio-political shifts, correlatively tied to technological step-changes (the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and the use of machine guns in the American Civil War in the 1860s; the election of the first Black President, and the rise social media through 2010s).
IV. Why would I hear about it?
The sentient value of artificial intelligence is the core of its coming of age. It is becoming clear that A.I replicates, scales and expedites mental work. Industry conversation fast follows to the implications for human work. Invariably, humans must focus on what A.I can't do, so revealing who we are and what we have to offer. Imagination is a key distinguishing feature: the ability to conceive an imitation through lenses coloured by uniquely visceral human experience. Is A.I. capable of humanistic imagination? The verdict is out.
V. How could I think about it?
In modernity, we take imitation and assign creativity as its meaning. No truer or clearer is this than in social media; replicable, repeatable, scalable images printed, reprinted and performed.
It may be, as Karl Lagerfeld suggested, that the highest creatives are the best curators. If that is true, then creation is the transfer of ideas and images, neither made nor destroyed, but imitated, alchemised and blended in novel ways. As social and technical forces confluence, this accelerates creative change.
What images can you alchemise to (re)imagine your world?
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July 26, 2023
Judicious
I. What does it mean?
(adj) Careful and sensible; showing good judgement
II. Where does it come from?
A compound of "ius" (right, law) and "dicere "(to say).
III. When is it (un)used?
The turn of the decade in 2012 saw the rapid decline of the words "judicious", "judicial" and "judge" in language. In the same month of Barack Obama's re-election, Israel launched Operation Pillar of Defence against the Palestinian-governed Gaza strip. "Hot take", "deadname" and "escape room" were recognised in the Oxford dictionary as new words.
IV. Why would I hear about it?
Israeli lawmakers advanced parts of a contentious plan by the right-wing government to reduce the judicial power of the Supreme Court, defying threats - by protestors of economic disruption, by international allies of diplomatic ramifications, and by military revisionists of refusal of duty.
V. How could I think about it?
Discretion, prudence, balance, and wisdom are synonymised in the body politic. All of this is implied in the word. Where virtue and decision meet, so too, we assume, is the system of law that regulates us. Now, nation states face a re-assignation of the judiciary, and in so doing, of the very institution of wisdom.
Were we wrong, all along, to conflate wisdom and reason in the judiciary?