By Jillian Jenée
Have you ever heard of a word that can be so powerful that when people hear it, they would react as if God or the devil himself tossed it in the air and hit it with a baseball bat straight towards them? Believe it or not, such words actually exist. They are referred to as “God Terms” or “Devil Terms” depending on what type or reaction (good or bad) they cause people to have.
According to persuasivelitigator.com, God terms are “words that have an inherent potency in identifying what you support.” Devil terms are the complete opposite.
Words such as freedom, health, safety, control, guarantee, truth, happy, discover, win can all be described as God terms. These are the kinds of words that often make people feel secure or like they are about to get ahead in life. They excite them in the best possible way. As soon as people hear them, they seem to stop whatever they are doing, whether changing their kid’s diaper, sitting on the commode, or cooking Sunday dinner.
Communism, pedophile, dangerous, uncertain, scarce, change, terrorist are considered to be devil terms. They spark sort of an alert alarm off in a person brain the moment the word hits the air and people immediately start to panic.
Why is it that a single word can strike such strong reactions from a human being? And why as human beings do we let them? Most importantly, how do we overcome these words and stop them from controlling our lives?
Whoever said words will never hurt us obviously never saw this infamous attack ad from the 1988 presidential election. Behold how George H.W. Bush destroyed opponent Michael Dukakis in one fell swoop here, with just a few phrases, particularly "weekend passes."
This kind of ad proves how words are sometimes mightier than weapons. What kind of language do you respond to most strongly? What are your God and Devil terms, the words to which your response reveals what kind of person you are? What is the most memorable "spin" you've seen put on certain phrases, like "weekend passes?"
