Personal,
Let's
finally get personal. Contrary to what everyone believes and says about this,
in our everyday conversations, we are completely impersonal, since we are all
used to talking with Disembodied Language (DL). People say that talk doesn't
fill holes (Dutch expression), but it is and has always been a blatant lie,
that merely talking won't do anything. There is, indeed, always a negative
consequence of our usual, negative, unconscious way of speaking and it is high
time that we dare to take personal responsibility for this.
Even
though no one wants to admit it, the fact is, in our ordinary - but required -
way of speaking, we do not listen to ourselves and continue to pretend that
others should listen to us or we pretend, that we are listening to them . In DL,
we unknowingly pretend to listen to others or we assume that others should be
listening to us. This remains an unaddressed phenomenon of enormous proportions,
because we deal with DL, day in, day out and are, therefore, absolutely incapable
of distinguishing between our DL and our Embodied Language (EL).
From our conditioning history,
no one is capable of having EL.
So, we are all in the same boat
and it is actually not something
personal, that we have DL. Only
someone with EL is truly personal.
With DL, we can only pretend,
that something is personal to us.
Moreover, when – with DL –
we talk about our grievances
or passions, we are always
unknowingly faking it. As
speakers, during DL, we
demand the listener's attention.
In DL, speakers always demand
attention, but in EL, speakers
give attention to the listener.
The difference is enormous.
Even
though everyone, from the impersonal conditioning history, remains busy with DL,
we, in Western, individualistic, democratic societies, apparently still agree, due
to the freedom of speech - which in the United States is enshrined in the First
Amendment of the Constitution – that we should be allowed to speak about
anything, no matter how confrontational or uncomfortable it may be when we strongly
disagree. Nevertheless, the difference between DL and EL is avoided by
everyone like the plague.
I
have lived in the United States for many years and now want to say something
about the left- and right-wing politics. Exclusively left-wing, 'liberal'
activists prefer to avoid conversation or even make it impossible. Due to the
lack of communication and the complicity of school administrators, teachers,
doctors, psychologists, therapists, politicians and social media companies,
thousands of children are changing their sexuality and pretending this is okay,
while nothing indicates, life is improving for those who, because of confusion,
have taken on a different gender. It is
very personal, that children have been indoctrinated and that in recent years,
trans-clinics have suddenly appeared everywhere. That a female judge, of the Supreme
Court, is unable to say what a woman is, is pure madness, but it is the predictable,
inevitable consequence of how people – with their superstitious, insensitive DL
– talk to each other.
The American philosophy of life,
liberty and the pursuit of
happiness, does not come
– according to me – from
the English, but from the
Dutch colonists. The vast
majority of Americans - if
they’ve learned anything
about it at all - do not know
any better that their history
only begins with the Pilgrim
Fathers, but they have no
idea, that a Dutch colony
existed in the seventeenth
century, called New Netherlands
or New Amsterdam, which
was later renamed New York
by English colonists. The term
Yan-kee – a resident of New
England, and later, American –
is a corruption of Jan-Kees,
two common Dutch names
and dollar, comes from the
Dutch thaler (daalder), which
is undoubtedly a reference to
the tolerant Dutch commercial
notion that we can profit from trade
and become rich, which
became an important part of the
American national character.
The
Dutch - liberal - influence is of a completely different nature, than the
puritan influence of the English colonists, who, to avoid persecution, first
fled to the Netherlands and after that, founded their fundamentalistic Christian colony in America. However, those British, who first came to the Netherlands, they wanted to leave very soon, because they took offense to the Dutch mentality, they
believed was too loose. Of course, it was also their adventurer's or freedom's
urge, that made them dare to take the dangerous crossing across the Atlantic Ocean with
the May Flower. I dare say, the change from DL to EL is equally monumental.
I
have the feeling - even though I only emigrated to America in 1999 - I embody
something of the Dutch colonists at the time, because I was born and raised in
the Netherlands. The exam that you take as an emigrant contains some questions
about English Pilgrims, but not a word about Dutch colonists. The Dutch
influence is also not mentioned anywhere in any history book, and I find it important, to once more write about it here.
My
cultural contribution, to my new country, is my fearless ability to demonstrate
the difference between DL and EL. In fact, it was the Dutch, who created The
American Dream, not the English. I view my ability to have EL, as a connection
to the irrefutable Dutch influence on American culture. Numerous translated
documents show, that the multi-ethnic immigrant society had its origins in New
Amsterdam. It was only there, that everyone, regardless of skin color or
origin, could climb the social ladder. Things were very different in the
intolerant English colony. Like their modern-day, narrow-minded descendants,
who are still obsessed with Christianity, they also condemned the Dutch at that
time, who enjoyed their life. The Dutch mirrored to the English, how stuck and unhappy they are.
Please,
consider the foregoing as an introduction and a setting of the stage, for the
issue I want to talk about in this writing. The difference between DL and EL,
is a vast topic that, just like the unknown, but very important, Dutch
influence on American history, is pushed aside by everyone. Other topics are
apparently of greater importance; therefore, we never get around to recognizing
and admitting that the great difference between DL and EL exists, and that the
future of America as well as the rest of the world, depends on whether we are
going to accept and explore the importance of this difference or not.
By not
recognizing the difference between DL and EL, we are involuntarily and unconsciously
talking about our own experience, but if we keep endlessly busy, with those
weighty topics (politics, religion, philosophy, sports, economics, immigration,
art, entertainment, etc., etc), which prevent us from addressing the difference
between DL and EL, then we - as individuals - without realizing, continue to
hide behind some group, we supposedly represent or belong to. Supposedly, we always
speak on behalf of others, but never on our own behalf. However, EL is the
language of the individual. The naturalization process should mean, that every
new immigrant should be able to distinguish between DL and EL and is able to choose
EL, the language of freedom.
Only
when we start discussing the difference between DL and EL, does everything
suddenly become personal. Moreover, after recognizing the difference between DL
and EL, it becomes clear to us that only with EL – and never with DL – can we
understand why so much goes wrong in so-called communication, in peace-talks, in
negotiations, and in all of the conversations, in which the difference between
what we personally experience and what we keep harping on, as participants of
one faith or another, is mixed-up and intertwined and during which personal
experience or own way of looking at things, always wins out over presumed 'advocacy'
due to membership and allegiance to some group.
During
DL, we are unknowingly speaking from our personal experience about what we believe
to be dealing with as a group. In fact,
in DL, we hide our individuality behind the group process and abuse that group
process to our own 'benefit'. Although it is always only about power and
influence, this normal, customary, accepted exploitation of the group process
for one's own gain, never results in any clarity about the major difference
between DL and EL. On the contrary, people continue to turn away from anything personal,
as taking it personal, is considered by everyone, who wants to take a higher
step to gain status on the social ladder, as a weakness. Persistence in safely representing
the pretended group interest, is best defense against any criticism of our own personal
behavior, which is conveniently ignored as an ad-hominem attack.
The
higher one climbs on the social ladder, the less chance there is, that one will
be held accountable for something that is personal. Everyone protects and
defends themselves politically or strategically. People sometimes babble about
the politicization or weaponization of all kinds of issues or institutions, but
they run away from the indisputable fact, which is visible – and audible – to anyone,
that everyone in DL does not listen to themselves and only acts as if they listen
to others and are actually trying to force others to listen to them or simply
try to make them do what they say. In DL, we manipulate, dominate, humiliate,
intimidate and argue, but we never speak naturally, honestly, sincerely, as an
individual.
By competing
for attention – the basis of DL – we are and will always remain impersonal. We
also demand a lot of attention by saying
nothing and by avoiding any form of interaction. The victim's role very
effectively commands the attention of others. This is also done during verbal the
acrobatics in the courtroom or in politics. Lawyers, like priests and many other
so-called leaders, always insist that they speak on behalf of others. Legislators
and lawyers control the entire public discourse and determine what is
acceptable. However, when we ourselves determine the difference between our own
DL and EL, it turns out, that nobody knows anything about their own DL and EL
and that we have relinquished our power to others, to our own detriment. I
would say, it is un-American to do this. With EL everything we say and do is
personal, not because we take it personal - as they accusingly say in DL - but
because it is truly personal and because, from our DL, there has always been a rigid
condemnation about what we ourselves experience. I consider EL to be the currency
of the future, as it signifies the dignity of the person who has it. With our continued
EL, we revive The American Dream, because our Language Enlightenment (LE), means
Living in Freedom and creating the spoken realization of our Happiness.
Everything
is personal, due to EL, as that is exactly where our challenge lies. Only in EL
is there is real progress and innovation. Finally, our individualistic,
personal approach, will emphasize and guarantee honest, dignified, conscious objectivity
– our LE – and will not, as in DL, condemn, abhor and deny it.