Language runs faster than truth. By the time you get an inkling of whether something is true or not, language will be half way up the street. When language is cresting the brow of the hill, truth is still labouring up the climb.
If you have ever spend a few minutes or so on social media following some sort of discussion, you will know how quickly the discussion can move. Due to my busy schedule, I typically join the discussion several hours after the fact and only see the aftermath of the fight. The language has usually long since gone – over the hill and far away. Truth may still be labouring up the hill trying to re-establish itself but the language has moved on, to some other debate and some other site.
The reason why this happens is that language is somewhat divorced from the physical world. It is as if there is a void in our heads which we can fill with any type of language that we so desire. This language does not always have to correspond with the truth. As more and more people join, the wheel spins faster and faster breaking loose from its bearings and any brake that was hopelessly designed to stop it.
But language is the guardian of our world and our society. We need to understand that we can all too often spin in the void at too great a rate of knots. If we better understand this fact then we will better serve the solidarity and free will we have been gifted.
Running Fast by Tiani. When I first saw this picture on Flickr I know that it would sit perfectly with the quote. The two sisters (or one?) look as if they have just committed some sort of crime and are about to flee the scene just as the photograph captures them bang to rights. It reminds me in part of the well-know twin sister paradox which you can read about here.
6009HUM Language in the Mind and the Machine 
