By Sri Lakshmi
Happy New Year! May every day be filled with beautiful fuel for your next trip around the sun.
It’s a great time to be a student. An even better time to study communications. Last September, our president inspired me to enroll in college. As part of this communication study, we students chose a communication theory as a template for the application of current events.
I chose Kenneth Burke’s Dramatistic Theory, because it helps take apart hate speech with 5 points: Who, what, where, how, and why. I added the work of psychologist Marshall Rosenberg’s “Living Nonviolent Communication.”
My question of study was, “How does language affect our environment?” I chose a research project that can be easily duplicated by anyone, an experiment Masaru Emoto first described in “Messages from Water.”
- 2 cups cooked white rice
- 2 clean dry clear glass jars with lids
- Blue painters’ tape
I placed one cup of cooked white rice in each jar and tightly sealed with lid.
I labeled Jar #1 with a phrase president Donald J Trump used during his speech delivered at the United Nations Assembly in New York last September: “Your countries are going to hell.”
Jar #2. I labeled Jar #2 with a phrase inspired by Marshall Rosenberg’s lifetime of conflict de-escalation: “I Respect You.”
At end of 12 weeks, I compared the jars of rice. Jar #1 became diseased and ugly. Jar #2 showed no change, remaining white in color.
To me, the study proved that hate speech negatively affects the environment. And it proved the power of Nonviolent Communication.
I received high marks for my presentation. I was told that I am in the wrong school and I received a referral to Washington State University, where undergraduates are conducting similar research in Nonviolent Communication. Food for thought.
