Hermes, Language, and How a Myth Gets Us Closer to Truth | Scott Neumeister | TEDxHeritageGreen
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhoAPCR3sL4 Video ID: IhoAPCR3sL4 ============================================================ Transcriber: Flávia Unneberg Reviewer: Hani Eldalees So I will confess to you right from the beginning that this TEDx talk is not true. Now, in the zone of communication, the question of the truth is always being negotiated. So today, I would like to share with you some insights that I have about the truth, about untruth, and about how an understanding of the Greek God, Hermes, can help us to better navigate that negotiation. Now, my favorite stories by far are myths. And I could think of no better myth to tell you related to this topic than the origin story of Hermes. Hermes, who's also known by Mercury in Roman mythology, is the Greek God that most people know as the one with wings on his cap and his sandals. He's the swift messenger of the gods. And in modern culture, you might actually see his image doing floral deliveries. Now, Hermes was actually more famous or maybe I should say infamous in his time for being a trickster and liar . And this was all because he was so clever. This is his origin story. The day he was born, he crawls out of his crib, he finds a tortoise, he kills the tortoise, and he uses that shell to make the very first stringed instrument, which is the lyre. L-Y-R-E Now more about the lyre later in the story. But that night he goes and he steals fifty of his brother Apollo´s cattle, and he’s very careful to cover up his tracks and to disguise the tracks of the cattle as he’s doing so. Now, Apollo is the god of truth, and when he eventually figures out who´ve done it, he drags his little brother before their shared father, Zeus, who’s actually kind of like the Supreme Court Justice of the gods, and he accuses him of stealing the cattle. Hermes straight up denies there is any idea what Apollo is talking about and how can he have even seen a cow in his short time here on Earth? Now, it’s pretty obvious from this part of the story that Hermes is going to become the god of lying and thieves. What's not so obvious, though, is how he then becomes the divine messenger and the god of communication. What is it about lying and communication that overlap so that Hermes encompasses both? Well, the secret lies in the fact that he's also the god of speed, as indicated by the wings on his cap and sandals. And that speed is something that is related to language because there's nothing faster that we have to communicate with than language. Let me repeat that there’s nothing faster than we have than language to communicate, but the faster we go with language, the further from the truth that we get. Here's a little secret about how language works. Language gains its speed and efficiency by using symbols to represent things. Let me give you an example. Apollo kept cattle as pets. I prefer dogs. I have a dog. I love my dog. Now, in English, the symbols that make up D-O-G look nothing like a dog. They don't sound like a dog. There's no direct link between them and a dog. It's because words are representations or re-presentations of something either in reality, like a dog or a concept like love. So I love my dog. Now I'm counting on the fact that you can approximate a dog in your mind when I say dog. But what if I want to convey my actual furry K9 companion? Well, I have to start using more descriptive language within a reasonable amount of time, so I would say my red 17 pound male Shiba Inu, and even then, you're not getting the full reality of my dog. Now, I won't keep you in suspense any longer. And I will now actually show you a picture of my dog. And his name is Kid. Now, did the picture of Kid match what was generated in your head? That truth gap happens all the time in language because of the representational nature of words and the time limitation that I have in giving description and that gap between my dog’s reality, the words I use to describe him and then what that generate in your mind is the gap into which Hermes sneaks and he steals some of that truth, just like he stole those cattle. Now, this is happening all the time with language. We're just not aware of it. And because of that fact, language is fundamentally a lie. And so, therefore, is this TEDx talk. Now, I know the problem I have inside with that statement. Now, wait a second. I cannot tell a lie. I believe in truth, justice in the American way. I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Well, I could go on, but we are obsessed with truth in our culture, so much so that we ignore at our peril the fact that language has a very, very difficult time at gaining reality. And because we're always being robbed by words of that truth, Hermes comes in and very cleverly covers his tracks in doing so. Now, back to the story, Zeus forces Hermes to show Apollo where he’s hidden his cattle. Now, this is a tense moment because Apollo could unleash his wrath on his little brother but clever Hermes takes out his lyre (LYRE) and starts to play on it. Apollo, who has never seen a string instrument before, is captivated by this. And he says at this moment where the god of truth is about to become also the god of music: “You can keep the cattle if I can have that instrument.” And thus this exchange happens, they become friends and the music that they cocreate bonds them. Now, how does this myth apply to us in the modern day, and how can we take this hermetic quality of communication and do something about it? Well, the first takeaway I would have for you is just the realization that more than ever we are now living in the age of Hermes. And I really see that in two ways. The first way is that we are swimming in words. We are drowning in communication, whether it’s text, emails, social media, zoom, you name it. The avenues of communication have proliferated in the last few decades. But what has not increased and cannot increase is the amount of time we have for communication. So what this means is that we are giving incrementally less time to all the ways we have of communication. And the second sign of the age of Hermes is related to speed itself. Hermes, as the God of speed, loves speed and efficiency. Now, even though the character limits are seem to be disappearing and texting and tweeting, for example, the language that was developed with that which you can see here is something that Hermès would have absolutely loved because it both is communicative and it's very quick and efficient. The problem with that efficiency is that we worship it, we fetishize that efficiency, and in doing so, we’re losing some truth. Truth gap expands and the window through which Hermes can slip in and steal those cattle gets larger and larger. So the second recommendation that I would have applies to this maxim about language, and that is we are always trading time for truth when we speak and when we communicate. And if you are worshipping efficiency, you're widening the door for Hermes to come in and steal some of your reality. So, if you are communicating with somebody and truth is very important to you, the first thing you can do in the giving of communication is to pause and be very mindful about that and say, for example, “Do you understand what I’m saying?” In the example that I gave you earlier, I might have said to you, “Do you even know what a Shiba Inu is?” And when you're on the receiving end of that, you can say something like, “If I hear you correctly what I understand you saying is...” This suffuses the conversation with time and more words. And both of those things allow that truth gap to start closing and give Hermes less of an opportunity to sneak in and steal those cattle. So, finally, here’s the naked truth about language. Just like Hermes and Apollo, are brothers lies and truth are siblings, and they have kind of an uneasy relationship. But the beauty of the music that comes from communication tends to overshadow the problems of this negative side of communicating. And if we can appreciate the beauty of something that is cocreated by these two figures, we can even appreciate something like a very efficiently given 10 minute TEDx talk. Which, yes, is full of symbols that only approximate the truth, but hopefully those words were able to get you further down the path to the truth. Thank you.