The word is the most powerful tool used by humankind. An ancient philosopher spoke those words. And so goes the adage – the word is mighty than the sword. If we look at this concept critically, we can see that what the thinker said was true.
Why is the written word powerful? And where did this power come from? If we go by the creation theory, the bible states that in the beginning, there was a Word and that Word was God. I have been thinking about this creation theory careful and thought that maybe this is why the word is powerful – it is the word of God. As the creation theory states, it was the same word that God used to create everything on earth except man.
So, if we believe that God is the most powerful being in the universe, then his word must also be powerful. To support our argument, let us consider some few examples.
Another adage says that the sword hurts the body but the word hurts the soul. It is better to hurt a man’s body than to hurt his soul.
The word has this ability to convince peoples that what they usually refer as the left arm is the right arm and vice versa. Even revolutions and coup de tats happens by convincing the public that their government does not deserve to be in power. This is made by intellectuals and peoples who usually construct well-written documents that are later published to convince peoples that their government should be overthrown – it is what popularly known as the media propaganda.
Even the modern day wars are fought in the media. It is said that if you do not have good and well-oiled propaganda machinery, do not go to war for you will loose. Before going into actual fighting, the army planes are seen in the sky dropping down leaflets and written papers to tell the enemies that they should give up the fight because they would never win. The leaflets usually contain pictures of sophisticated weapons and gigantic soldiers to drive this point home – it is the psychological warfare. The nations at war use it.
The politicians in the government and their opponents know the importance of using words to fight political rivals. Those in government hires intellect spin doctors who polish the government image to the public. Those peoples are considered very powerful and to be the power behind the throne.
Even modern days philosopher and thinkers says that the nation that destroys its writings destroys itself. Without the people’s writings and history, we cannot be able to know their culture and their ways of life.
The disadvantages of this are that peoples who fear the power of written word persecute writers, journalists and thinkers. Religion fanatics and zealots kill journalists and writers who have the rights to express themselves freely. Even some governments assassinate writers who they consider critical to their government. But no matter how much they try to silence the critics, they cannot defeat the power of the written word. No man can because this is the Word of God and nobody can defeat the creator.
© Mungai Mwangi 2015
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