Avoiding Hate Speech: Ahimsa in Communication Ethics

translates to brother and sister, as there is no one exact word in English to translate “kakak” and “adik”. As another example, the translation of “I didn’t go” and “I don’t go” into Indonesian is the same, which is “saya tidak pergi”, while the two English sentences tells of two different occurences. How would we translate “house” and “home” into Indonesian? The examples given above are only a few examples. However, from these examples, a translator can realize that the English language and culture horizon is different to the Indonesian language and culture. Within the cultural perspective settings of the English language, gender differences matters, as evident in the obligation of a British gentleman in protecting women older or younger is irrelevant. Within the cultural perspective settings of Indonesian language, gender does not come first, it is seniority. An older sibling male or female it is the same is obligated to protect hisher younger siblings male or female it is the same. A younger sibling is obligated to respect hisher older sibling, it is not important whether the older siblings are male or female. It is also possible that the cultural perspective settings of the Indonesian language observe time as a range of presentness that is almost without end, unlimited, abundant polychronic culture. Meanwhile, the cultural background of the English language observes time as compartmentalized into the past, the present, and the future, moving on a linear path, one way from the back to the front. The present that is not productively being used would disappear into the past, frozen, and no longer changeable. The future is highly determined by what we do in the present. The present time spent and wasted carelessly would make us work much harder in the future. Time is a limited source, hence it must be used to its maximum monochronic culture. Therefore, the translator, a person who does not close oneself in hisher own culture and open oneself actively to “understand” other culture, could broaden his culture. The translator need not change hisher identity as an Indonesian learning English. On the contrary, if shehe were English, the translator need not change herhis identity as an English person learning Indonesian. People who learn foreign languages and achieve true mastery would broaden their cultural perspective with the cultural perspective they’ve learned without abandoning and changing the former cultural perspective. In the language of Rorty, they are capable of “redescription” of their own culture Rorty, 1989. Even in our own linguistic and cultural environment we often have to translate our same thoughts or opinions several times through various different formulations. Therefore we use the phrase, “thus”, “it can be concluded”, “in short”, “it can be said that”, “meaning…”, “this means that”, and so on and so forth.

7.6 Conclusion

In today’s informational era, most of our acts of communication are those utilizing mediated communication. Even mediated communication has huge social impact because a single act of communication could reach a wide audience, through the spread of printed media as newspapers or magazines, broadcast of electronic media radio and television and new media internet and smart phone. With the advancement of media technology, it is almost impossible for us to be in a natural “enclosed situation”. Media technology will get us closer to “other” cultures, that is “different” to culture and customs we’ve lived in all our life. Media technology will present a “foreign” way of life into our living room. One of the ways in protecting ourselves from these “foreign” exposures is by not using any media at all or by considering it as “non-reality”. Thus, we do not violate the ethical obligation to be non-violent. However, this method is still based on a closed attitude, even if it is passive. A closed attitude can also be expressed in a more active way where “hate speech” is the main method to ultimately annihilate diversity through the path of violence. Therefore, in every community action, we are obligated to not conduct in what is called “hate speech”. On the one hand, hate speech is a result or expression of an active closed attitude, which is a closed attitude driven to consider other groups of community which are “different” to us as non-existent. Hate speech is born out of the instinct to annihilate variety or diversity. On the other hand, hate speech will also infect the active closed attitude and spread violence towards community groups or nations that are “different” to us. A passive open attitude also fulfils the obligation of non-violence towards groups that are “different” to us. However, this obligation is the minimum for an active open attitude. In an active open attitude, we are also obligated to execute “linguistic hospitality”, by attempting to understand “vocabularies” and “grammar” of the other group, so as to be able to “converse” or communicate with them, without losing our own language and cultural perspective.

7.7 Reference

Arneson, Pat. 2007. Perspectives on Philosophy of Communication. West Lafayette: Purdue University Press. Castells, Manuel. 2004. The Information Age: The Rise of Network Society. Malden, MA etc: Blackwell Publishing. Denton, Robert K. ed.. 2000. Political Communication Ethics: An Oxymoron?. New York: Praeger. Huntington, Samuel. 1996. Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Order. New York: Simon and Schuster. George F. McLean. 2004. Plenitude and Participation: the Life of God in Man. Washington DC: The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy.