YAALA - Information – The Message, Its Interpretative Use and Its Messenger

YAALA Series 2 - In this FPM digest written in a concise nature than our regular exhaustive deliberating posts, we aim to share some of our fund- and investments-related observations and activities.We anecdotally question and challenge established wisdom.

Information – The Message, Its Interpretative Use and Its Messenger

 

The idea of promoting “diversity” has been mooted by about by many as a positive characteristic. Similar word with such assignation is the word “choice” as maybe used for example in commercial or political marketing. Indeed, sticking with dissection of “diversity”, the word has been promoted by local councils and media as a potent showcase, for example, in demonstrating the multiculturalism of United Kingdom. The positive associations in the use of the word such as ‘diversity’ also embodies emptiness of the phrase in actuality. UK is conveyed as a cosmopolitan society right? Characterised by many religious faiths, food-villages from all over the world, over 250 spoken languages, etcetera. However the reality is less romantic or an ideal! London as prime metropolis comes close to being diverse, as does other UK cities and perhaps SE England. However, do these examples validate UK-wide as cosmopolitan nation?

Take the languages aspect of multiculturalism as an example, while we moot that as positive feature of UK’s historical and current world-wide ties, the reality is that people ONLY SPEAK English ultimately and predominantly. Ethinicity is always marginalised for the sake of the national identity. And further, this multilingualism in schools or culture is not deeply fostered, or at least hasn’t been in the past. Further other languages is derogatively killed-off or made extinct. How many 2^nd and 3rd generation Italian descendants actually speak their native language? Or in current migration-terms affecting UK, how many 2^nd and 3^rd generation sired peoples of UK will speak Polish or Lithuanian? Think also historically of Gaelic, Welsh, Olde English and the many languages that constituted the British Isles before their extinction for the House of Hanover overrule.  

“Where he perceived only a mass of undifferentiated humanity, she distinguished individuals” Aldous Huxley, Point Counter Point, 1928

People brought up and educated in England were proffered the option of learning sister European languages like French or German, as practical. Was there ever an education system, private or public which engendered the immigrant students’ language? By nature in a multicultural nation of immigrants there are other languages relegated as ‘home-spoken’. Children eventually subscribe to the language of their peers, asserted culturally as English even if they are of vague Estonian, Japanese or Sri Lankan origins. How confusing and perplex is it to really understand a lanuage that is generationally not ones mother-tongue? This bewilderment by not having a natural evolved generational language can put a person on the proverbial spot and stuck for cogent reply in a tight spot and being clumsy. Never mind espousing “language is power” and making the world a better place!

 Isn’t diversity of peoples in UK really an economic growth policy by expansion of immigration? While this may not be a popular UK government policy it is nonetheless an unofficial growth policy. As much as UKIP is protest party to vent native frustration but officially they are challenged to upset status quo of middle-line kowtowing politicians.

Without digressing, back to the language of diversity. Put in another way, how many times has anyone seen public signs translated into 2^nd or 3^rd language? As seen in other countries. Has anyone looked into know what is the 2^nd and 3^rd widely spoken language of diverse UK is or has been? For graphical representation we have chart below of global languages – it is not mere coincidence that small Country in Europe has spawned into the 3^rd widely spoken language. Aldous Huxley, a true Great British liberal of aristocratic learning, speculated that "the heart of England is to replace one meaning with another..."

click to enlarge

So we may use ‘diversity’ in branding and spin as a positive but the conceived reality rather than the rhetoric with a vested and often hidden agenda by its ‘pushers’ is uncertain to most. Even those who think they can read between the lines of propaganda. Or as Friedrich Nietzsche suggests “there are no facts only interpretations.

To surmise we have information conveyed by the word “diversity”, we have an interpretation of an idea and what it signifies and portrays in a context, but what does the messenger really have in ultimate purpose? We refer you to FPM's introduction of the ‘Straw Man Fallacies'. Some may say sinister and dark motives lie behind empty slogans and phrases. Or as Naom Chomsky points out, empty slogans and their meaning, as simply being ascribed to “propaganda”. Recommended reading by Chomsky "Media Control, Second Edition: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda”  To reaffirm this point, another global icon is quoted; “Yoda” in the archetypal George Lucus “Star Wars” films about good versus evil. The council of Jedi masters (the good guys), were not aware of the emergent Sith force (the bad guys) so Yoda in his subject-object language starts off as:

“Hard to see, the dark side is. We must investigate further before drawing a conclusion to the identity of your adversary.” Yoda - The Phantom Menance, 1999

N.B. If any non-lateral thinking individual questions how this subject matter is not an FPM article related to investments, we refer you to information arbitraging SAC Capital Advisers which is now facing closure. Or please read our forthcoming speculative escalation towards Scottish Independence – Yes vote and ultimately the premise for European Union disintegration or greater cohesion under German autocracy.