<div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center" align=center><B><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 16pt">Words and weapons<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></SPAN></B></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center" align=center><B><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 16pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></B></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.25in"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 16pt">Words are weapons. If you have the power to mean them, you can kill “others”, occupy their lands, and run the world. The poor words take the meanings we give them. “Democracy”, “human rights”, and “freedom” are all empty, void of any true content, but when you have the power to fill them with your own meanings, then, you are the better human beings who can spread your democratic values throughout the underdeveloped world, the developing world, the third world, worlds of the bad peoples. If you can mean
the words, you may have all the human rights because “others” are not even human to have their own rights or if they deserve any rights, they deserve the rights you determine for them. And, if you can mean the words, you have all the freedom, even the freedom to kill “others”. We and our words got lost amongst the anarchy of meaninglessness. Democracy against democracy, human rights against human rights, and freedom against freedom.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.25in"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 16pt">If the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:country-region w:st="on">US</st1:country-region> and the West couldn’t mean “democracy” in their own way, could they kill thousands of people in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region w:st="on">Iraq</st1:country-region> to democratize the <st1:place w:st="on">Middle East</st1:place>? One
cannot defend Saddam or Ben Laden, but who is responsible for all those who were killed and injured in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Iraq</st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:place></st1:country-region> in the name of democratization? (I guess words!) The confusion of fighting against others for the same others is possible only if you have the power to manipulate meanings.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.25in"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 16pt">One who can mean “human rights” can kill thousands in <st1:City w:st="on">Hiroshima</st1:City> and <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Nagasaki</st1:place></st1:City> in a split second and, still, deny the others, by means of NPT, the right to have even the peaceful nuclear technology. If “rights” had just one meaning, <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region> and could not have
nuclear bombs, while others are paying a lot for peaceful nuclear research.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.25in"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 16pt">Freedom of speech is the freedom to hurt the feelings of millions of people, because you have the power which runs the media. Through your global media institutions you can mean freedom in a way that allows you to publish the offensive cartoons of Mohammad who is the leader of more than one-fifth of the world population. But, when it comes to Holocaust cartoons, it is against the freedom of speech because it may hurt the feelings of a very small portion of the world population who own most of the world media.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.25in"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 16pt">All these contrasting uses of words by means of which international powers dominate and exploit masses of people and thereby degrade humanity show how
critical is our duty as discourse analysts.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.25in"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 16pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.25in"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 16pt">Ali A. Sultani,<o:p></o:p></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.25in"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 16pt">Baqir al-Olum Higher Education Institute,<o:p></o:p></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.25in"><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 16pt">Qom</SPAN></st1:City><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 16pt">, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Iran</st1:country-region></SPAN></st1:place><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 16pt">.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></div><p>
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