“
The limits of my language means the limits
of my world.” ~
Ludwig Wittgenstein
What gives a word its meaning? I have been studying this question for the
past 4 months, reading the work of the Austrian philosopher quoted above. For someone who is so interested in language,
he sure was a COMPLETELY incoherent writer.
One of the few things that I actually understood from my painstaking
reading of Wittgenstein is that our words derive their meaning, at least in part,
from how we use them within our community.
That is, words by themselves are just collections of symbols or
sounds. Any meaning they have comes from
what a community agrees upon. This seems
like a simple and obvious enough idea right?
Well, it gets complicated fast when we start talking about ethics – i.e.
try telling me about the common agreement of the meaning of words like “good”
or “justice” or “fairness” or “person?”
I recently explained this idea to my sister who started
reading this blog and asked me why I casually flung around the word “crip” in
almost every post. She knows that I am
very sensitive to language issues when it comes to politics, as I have
corrected her many times about things like using “people with disabilities” in
place of “the handicapped” or “intellectual disability” instead of
“retarded.” So, why in the WORLD would I
use a version of the hate filled, oppressive word cripple!?
If Wittgenstein is right about both things: 1) words gets their meaning from
how they are used in a community and 2) language defines the “limits of our world,”
then one of the most radical acts of resistance we can perform is to try and
change the meaning of a word. How we
speak about situations and people has everything to do with how we think about
them and how we act with them. So, if we
can redefine words, we can go a long way toward freeing ourselves.
The word cripple as it is traditionally used is a terrible,
disgusting word. Every definition in the
dictionary is filled with negative connotations. As it stands, the community’s agreement about
the word cripple tells us that whether we are talking about an aircraft carrier
or an infant, to be crippled is to be broken, weakened, and, ultimately,
devalued.
So the slogan “crip power!” almost seems like a paradox. How could anything that is crippled be
powerful? According to Wittgenstein, if
we, as people with disabilities, take pride in our way of living and DECIDE that
the words “crip power!” not only make sense, but are our most central
battle-cry, then that is how it will be.
The very meaning of the word crip will change, even if it is only within
our community, and we will FINALLY be defining ourselves. No longer will we be told that we are
helpless or damaged, because we will have decided to change the limits of our
world by changing the meaning of our words.
Filed under: crip culture, community, revolution, activism, advocacy, defiance, rebellion, oppression, disability rights, discrimination, philosophy, empowerment, disability culture, linguistics, language, crip power, meaning, words
