LA_MERC_MadMAX
October 13th, 2004, 11:43 PM
I've been thinking recently about labels, in the sense of names that people use to refer to themselves or other people or to attributes of people.
Many of us live in societies where attaching labels is viewed as important. It can serve a function, it's a useful shortcut. We all (well, most of us) know that labels can be used destructively as well as constructively, and sometimes people substitute knowing the label for knowing the person.
What I was thinking about was how important attaching a label might seem to someone. To take a common example, try "liberal" or "conservative." How important is it to you that your viewpoint be labelled that way, or that the viewpoint of someone else (either someone you like or someone you don't) be labelled that way? Does it bother you when people tinker with the definitions in ways that disagree with yours?
I have seen this kind of label dispute in many very different situations. People arguing over the definition of liberal, conservative, Christian, atheist, white (race), black (race), Democrat, Republican, lots of things. These disputes can be important, because the words are used to communicate, and it's impossible to communicate unless you agree (sufficiently well) on the meaning of the words being used. They can also be stirring up dispute unnecessarily, or they can be distracting from more important issues.
To what extent is it important that a particular label be attached to a particular person or group of people, or to yourself? Do you find yourself bristling when someone claims that you have no right to a label you've applied to yourself? Are you on the other side of that discussion, are you annoyed at someone who improperly claims a label?
Do you find that you massage your viewpoint, beliefs, principles, actions, opinions, based on the attributes of a label you apply to yourself?
Ack, it sounds like I'm claiming these are uniformly bad things. I'm not. I find the concept interesting, and I've been thinking about it a bunch recently, given the amount of labelling being done these days. For "label" in the two paragraphs before this one, perhaps you could think of "name of a movement" or "professional title" "honorific title bestowed upon esteemed members of a group" if that sounds more appropriate. You might be thinking, "I have to act thus-and-such way, I am a 'high school principal,' that's the way a 'high school principal' should act," for example.
Just wondering.
Many of us live in societies where attaching labels is viewed as important. It can serve a function, it's a useful shortcut. We all (well, most of us) know that labels can be used destructively as well as constructively, and sometimes people substitute knowing the label for knowing the person.
What I was thinking about was how important attaching a label might seem to someone. To take a common example, try "liberal" or "conservative." How important is it to you that your viewpoint be labelled that way, or that the viewpoint of someone else (either someone you like or someone you don't) be labelled that way? Does it bother you when people tinker with the definitions in ways that disagree with yours?
I have seen this kind of label dispute in many very different situations. People arguing over the definition of liberal, conservative, Christian, atheist, white (race), black (race), Democrat, Republican, lots of things. These disputes can be important, because the words are used to communicate, and it's impossible to communicate unless you agree (sufficiently well) on the meaning of the words being used. They can also be stirring up dispute unnecessarily, or they can be distracting from more important issues.
To what extent is it important that a particular label be attached to a particular person or group of people, or to yourself? Do you find yourself bristling when someone claims that you have no right to a label you've applied to yourself? Are you on the other side of that discussion, are you annoyed at someone who improperly claims a label?
Do you find that you massage your viewpoint, beliefs, principles, actions, opinions, based on the attributes of a label you apply to yourself?
Ack, it sounds like I'm claiming these are uniformly bad things. I'm not. I find the concept interesting, and I've been thinking about it a bunch recently, given the amount of labelling being done these days. For "label" in the two paragraphs before this one, perhaps you could think of "name of a movement" or "professional title" "honorific title bestowed upon esteemed members of a group" if that sounds more appropriate. You might be thinking, "I have to act thus-and-such way, I am a 'high school principal,' that's the way a 'high school principal' should act," for example.
Just wondering.