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# Author Notes

## The Living Word

This was inspired by a text about how language influence how we think, and why leaders are so eager to pin epithets such as "terrorist" or "climate denier" or other labels on their opponents. Repeat it often enough, and people believe it, and will start to think in such terms.

Likewise, when union negotiators start to use the terms of employers, they also adapt some of their values. This is a well know trick by negotiators of all kinds. Get the other part to use your language, your terms, and you'll soon have them see things your way.

There is also ample historical precedent of conquered peoples and minorities having their language taken from them, as a weapon to make them fall in line.

Language shape us.

From there, taking it a step further and say that language shapes the world was pretty easy, especially in Heroica, since it has the creation myth of "In the beginning was the Word. From the Word, the world was created". Right from the start, there is a close connection between language and the world.

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