Communication is a funny thing. To understand each other's ideas, we need a common means of expression; ergo, language. Language consists of words, or representations of ideas. When you speak multiple languages and try to go back and forth, one often runs into words which defy a good, solid literal translation; or even if you can make a literal one, the real meaning of a word or phrase gets, as they say, "lost in translation." Even in dealing with a language one speaks fluently, finding "just the right words" often becomes difficult. That is the inherent fallibility of language, written or spoken; it can never perfectly express that which it is attempting to define. Another problem is that even if two people communicating speak the same language, their definitions of certain words and how they apply them to the world may be drastically different.
That's why I tend to dislike labels.
Obviously, labels can be useful to a point. Like other words, they can be necesssary in order to communicate. If you called me a "vegetarian" i wouldn't deny it, it's a label i've conceded to using myself on occassion. But some people call themselves vegetarians when what they really mean is that they don't eat red meat, or they don't eat land animals. Some people consider themselves raw foodists but the degree of raw-ism in the diet might be 50%, 75%, very rarely 100%. Some people consider themselves Christians yet do not believe that Jesus was the Messiah, which to some is heresy. There's nothing wrong with any of these things; the point is, our ideas of labels don't always conform to other peoples' ideas of what a (whatever) should be like. Labeling also tends to see too much black and white and forgets about those pesky gray areas, unless you have a generic blanket term for anything that falls into the category of "gray."
I hate to keep using this, but for the sake of argument, let's say I was a vegan (which i've considered but haven't quite dove fully into yet). What does that tell you about me? That I don't eat flesh, eggs, or dairy, and may or may not use other animal products. That's the definition of vegan, is it not? Okay. Does that also mean, though, that i wear hemp, grow alfalfa sprouts in my kitchen, join in PETA rallies, have a bumper sticker on my car like "Friends Don't Let Friends Drink Milk," or drink a shot of wheatgrass juice every day? Sure, any of these could be true, but are they? Can you really know or assume any of these facts just because i happened to identify myself as a vegan? Aha. Problems arise when we attach preconceived notions to labels. When someone tells you their religious creed, all that tells you is what they say is their religious creed. One "Buddhist" may have drastically different beliefs than another, same with two "Jews" or "Hindus" or "Muslims" or "Witches" or "Taoists" or "Jains" or two "anythings." Beliefs may be similar in some cases, but not necessarily the same. Which is all too often what a religious label implies. Similarly, when you learn of someone's ethnicity, all that tells you is where their ancestors came from. Might they share similar characteristics with others of their ethnicity? Maybe. But maybe not. Being thrown in the same category as people who are unlike you in so many other ways, is that much more irritating if others automatically assume that you are alike, just because you happen to share some sort of label. Sounds benign enough. But taken to extremes, this is when it gets really dangerous. When prejudices are coupled with ignorance, and turn into bigotry and hatred, this is when labeling is at its absolute worst. And this is when it gets downright scary. The Holocaust of Nazi Germany is just one example of it going horribly wrong. This is why we have wars, this is why we have genocides, this is why we have hate crimes, this is why we have so much violence on our streets and in our homes. Because we can't get past our preconceived notions about the labels we apply to one another.
Again, i'm not saying that we need to abandon language or communication or ethnic identity or any of that. I just think that we all need to remember that words and labels are merely representations of ideas or people, not the ideas or people themselves. Lao Tzu said that the true meaning of Tao cannot be put into words, and acknowledges that even calling it Tao can't fully express what it is. I think that's a very fitting parallel. Because you can't package a person in a name, either.
