What's in a word?
Developing a Green lexicon

By Alan Kobrin
Miami-Dade Green Party

We are told America is in Iraq to bring democracy to its people. In attractive ads, oil companies tout their efforts to diversify energy sources. A sign in Manhattan reads "Public Space: owned and maintained by AT&T." Do we need to be convinced that our language, along with our rights and institutions, is being expropriated?

Yet in spite of the evident hypocrisy in the above assertions, all too many people are willing to accept them as truth. Words can inform, misinform, even disinform. They can unite us, and they can divide us. When elements of our language are hijacked, so is our ability to think and reason as a society.

As informed and caring citizens, however, Greens do not generally fall prey to the misuse of language as do others, right? Well...let's see.
That question resulted in a workshop ("The Green Lexicon: Hands-on Workshop Towards Green Definitions of Society, Organization and Action") sponsored by Richard Scott of Arizona and me during the National Convention in Milwaukee to examine and discover the way Greens use language and how that may affect us.

So, what is a "Green Lexicon"? Do Greens use words in certain exclusive ways? What are Green buzzwords? After a brief introduction to some notions of the use and misuse of our vocabulary, around 30 participants took on these and other questions as we began the task of examining Green use of language.

The idea behind this effort was to look at ways of improving internal and external communication and understanding among Greens, as we tackle large issues affecting us and our party.

Much of the debate online and at meetings of the Green Party revolves around directions and actions the party should take and by what process to make these decisions. A lot of the differences have to do with our trying to be a political party that is truly different from those we see today. Our vision of society and the world is different from the corporate vision of the U.S. and the world. Our use of words and ideas should be different as well.

Take the term public relations. With all the media influence in our lives, it is no wonder so many of us tend to think of public relations by the corporate definition as practiced by, say, Exxon after the Exxon Valdez oil spill, a definition in which business survival was the primary goal and influencing public opinion in a desired direction was the task. Relation to truth might be secondary, if not optional. Does this mean that Greens should shun public relations?

As a graduate student in mass communications, I once considered public relations a four-letter word and often said so. I took hearty self-satisfaction in that attitude. However, with political work I came in time to realize that I was falling victim to someone else's expropriation of my vocabulary. Just because democracy is used at times to justify war doesn't mean we should abandon the concept of democracy. In fact to do so in such circumstances is tantamount to surrender. A core, or if you would, "green" definition of democracy would likely emphasize participation, justice and responsibility. In the same way, an appropriate green working definition of public relations could keep us all more aware of our target constituencies while we keep them informed about our visions, our goals, our accomplishments. Something perhaps to be embraced, not avoided.

At the workshop we examined a set of words, how they have been and could be used negatively, and how we might re-appropriate them in a positive way. We looked at such words as vision, planning, participation, strategy, responsibility, accountability, trust, authority, fundraising, democracy, leadership, justice, grassroots, delegation, activism, results, consensus, effectiveness, professionalism, structure, process, victory, transparency, left, right, ability, qualification, experience, pro-life, progressive, liberal, conservative, expertise, money, power, fundraising, and political marketing. We then divided the words into several categories where group discussion led to better understanding of how these words can be used.

Developing Green definitions for terminology not only offers clarity in our internal discussions and aid in conflict reduction, but just as importantly, can serve as a model for the community at large of green ways of social interaction, organization and problem solving.

We were pleased that, as the workshop ended, nearly all participants wished to continue this work. So we formed a group, adopting the name "The Green Lexicon."

Those who would like to contribute words or participate in discussion can go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GreenLex.  In future Green Pages, if there is interest, we could begin to examine some terms common to the Green experience and Green aspirations.

Alan Kobrin is a communications junkie, member of the International Committee, former co-chair GPUS and Miami-Dade GP Electoral Chair.