I came across an essay almost a year old by one Mattias Desmet called “The De-Souling of the World.” It ends with these lines:
“This revolution essentially boils down to this: a society led by a propagandized mass is replaced by a society led by a group of people connected through sincere speaking. […] What are the different ways in which a person can use words, and which form of speaking can penetrate the veil of appearance and inspire people in times when they are suffocating under manipulation and appearance? How can we master the art of Good Speech?”
Which put to mind John Dos Passos’ “Sacco and Vanzetti” passage from U.S.A., (The Big Money, 1936), Camera Eye 50:
“America our nation has been beaten by strangers who have turned our language inside out who have taken the clean words our fathers spoke and made them slimy and foul”
It also recalls these quotes found in Lionel Trilling’s Sincerity and Authenticity (1972):
“Born Originals,” Edward Young said, “how comes it to pass that we die Copies?” (p. 93, Oxford University Press edition)
“The machine, said Ruskin, could make only inauthentic things; dead things and the dead things communicated their deadness to those who used them. Nor, in his view, is it only actual machinery which produces dead objects but any mode of making that does not permit the maker to infuse into the artefact the quality of his being.” (p. 127, Oxford University Press edition)
With thanks to Shirty Sleeves’ “Constellations” series for the inspiration.