I would rather be not understood than misunderstood

“The limits of my language means the limits of my world.”  Ludwig Wittgenstein

“I would rather be not understood than misunderstood.” R.Buckminster Fuller

‘Use simple words. Make sure it can be understood by a six year old.’ I am told this ad nauseam.

I do not want language to be a barrier to access. To ‘elite’ the work into some arrogant stratosphere. 

At the same time, I despise reducing human adults to the realm of children, disrespecting their ability.

New language creates a new world. Think google, internet, defund, gig economy.

Bucky Fuller was a word creator as well as a world creator. Synergy, syntropy, ephemeralisation – all his words. 

Perhaps it is not the words themselves that create barriers, but the stories that the words are placed in that give them context. 

Syntropy is the opposite of entropy. Entropy is the collapse into chaos, disorder, energetic breakdown. Syntropy is towards a higher order for an eternally regenerative Universe. Any system that moves towards stasis, or decay, that takes more than it gives, that eats up all the resources until there is nothing left, is entropic. 

Any system or design that brings more than it takes, that acts from generosity, that sees the world and energy as plentiful, that refuses to extract or exploit to win, is Syntropic.

Are we working toward Syntropy or entropy? 

A question worth asking using words that need to become commonplace.

Photo taken May 7th 2022