Word Play

Words of Change

Does writing have the power to enact social change? It has been my experience that words can affect people more than one may think. Over the course of history, many people have changed the way people think just by talking. For example, people like Dr. Martin Luther King. King gave speeches and sermons and preached about his views, and people listened. Even some people who at first disagreed with him over time came to agree with him and see his views. Millions of people began to follow him and all he was doing was expressing his opinions and thoughts in the form of words.
In my opinion, whether positive or negative, words can change the way a person thinks. For example, one time a I was arguing with one of my friends. Now, normally when people try to insult me it doesn’t bother me. But when I was arguing that one time, one simple word really made me stop and it actually affected me. The person called me pathetic. Up to that point no one has ever called me pathetic, and it actually made me sit down and ponder whether I was pathetic or not. Because normally I don’t care what people say, but for some strange reason, that one word got to me and changed my mentality. Maybe this is how people like King were able to get to people and change them. Maybe their words were so powerful that the people listening had no choice but to open their minds to that change.
Also, I think words can enact social change based on who is speaking them. This is because you can only get certain points of view from certain people. For example, when King spoke, he talked about equal rights for all and not just African Americans. I think if he just got up and spoke about just equal rights for all black people, not as many people would support his ideas. Like if a black guy were in King’s shoes and tried to speak about rights for only black people, people in general would not like him so much, especially other races. King had followers from all races simply because he wanted rights for all and everyone felt he was fighting for them and not everyone else.
In short, in my opinion writing and words do have the power to enact social change. Whether good or bad, whether people like it or not, words can and will affect you in some way, whether big or small. Also, words will enact social change based on how they are used and how people interpret them. The person speaking or writing needs to connect with their audience in order to change their points of view to relate to theirs. This is how words can and will enact social change.