Verbal Pollution

We have all read and learned, or been made aware about pollution. From Air to water to noise pollution etc, everybody is adversely affected, in as much as everyone is responsible in contributing towards pollution. The health of human beings, animals and birds , and of our environment is of vital concern since there is nothing good about pollution than to suffer its negative impact. Considering the hazardous effects of environmental pollution, popular leaders of the world have, during “Green Summits”, resolved to make collective and consistent efforts in tackling the problems of pollution. The dreary consequence of our ignorance on Environmental issues should awaken our senses and evoke positive response from every member of the “World Family”. Having briefly introduced thus about pollution, this writer would now attempt to stress on one type of pollution which has been so far ignored by everybody, that is VERBAL POLLUTION. As expressed above, pollution takes many forms, but this Verbal type is mostly overlooked. Charles Swindoll is credited for having coined the term “VERBAL POLLUTION” which is passed around by grumblers, complainers and criticizers. The poison of pessimism creates an atmosphere of whole sale negativism where nothing but the bad side of everything is emphasized. In the context of the Nagas, it has become quite a common thing, even like a neo-fashion, to utter 2-3 bad words in a single sentence. Young men and women today, are particularly seen giving voice to such socio-religiously unacceptable vocabularies that tend to lean more towards being vulgar, (even abusive) than to being meaningful without an iota of understanding what their words imply. The relevance of language/dialect as an identity of a particular tribe, or State is diluted through usage of such words. This generation of wannabes/copycats of the west or south-east Asia are losing their cultural and traditional identity. In an attempt to look, act, speak, and dress like the Western, Korean counterparts they are bartering off their true identity, and contributing towards “VERBAL POLLUTION”. It has become quite common to use 3-4 different languages in one sentence. And going by their interest and eagerness to learn and apply other languages (say Korean), the day may not be far when today’s children would have forgotten to speak their own mother tongue properly/fluently. The South-East-West “masala language” addled with “slang and dirty” Nagamese, sprinkled with “rough and randy” tribal dialect in order to be considered as Hip/Standardized by our young people would have contributed much to Verbal Pollution. Allow me to share one experiment: A group of Christian friends became concerned about this form of Pollution and their personal part in it. So they made a pact to avoid critical words for a whole week. They were surprised to find how little they spoke! As they continued to experiment, they actually had to relearn conversation skills. From the above experiment, we can conclude just how much we contribute towards verbal pollution without even realising about it. If we want to rid of Verbal Pollution, we must choose to change and ask for God’s help. And that’s a great way to start cleaning up our Spiritual Environment. (What! Never speak one evil word, Or rash, or idle, or unkind O how shall I, most gracious Lord, This mark of true perfection find? _Wesley) To conclude, let’s Help stamp out (Verbal) pollution by cleaning up our speech. A. Anato Swu