Impersonal Pronouns

Ah the power of language and its intricacies. People undermine the study of language and don’t realize how powerful one's choice of words and phrasing is and how manipulative it is. Manipulative – I know I’ve previously discussed with a colleague on how gentler we can express this word. Ah, influence, the word of choice was influence. Ok, let me start over: …on how influential language is. Such as the case of the use of pronouns.

How inevitable are pronouns? This is a thought I tried to ponder about the other day as I strategize how to objectively argue with a person and not try to get my opinion – especially not my feelings – in the discussion and avoid offending said person, and yet get my point across convincingly. Already, in that previous sentence, I couldn’t avoid the possessive pronoun my. And in that phrase, the personal pronoun I was the first thing that came to mind. As I write these passages, I have come up with an idea how to impersonalize the third sentence: Already, in that previous sentence, the possessive pronoun "my" could not be avoided.

It is possible, though. It just takes a lot of practice and of course, conscious writing.

Why would one want to avoid pronouns? If it isn’t obvious enough, it is to come off as impersonal. Why would one want to be impersonal? Because humans are very sensitive beings. They think everything is about them. I, my, myself – overly narcissistic. So, is there anything wrong with that? In itself, no, there’s nothing wrong with that. Except that sometimes, everything is wrong with that.

I personally don’t think everything is about us. I have tried to look at the world as an object. This came as an accident while doing my master's degree thesis. It drove me crazy. If that seems to be the case, why would I want to convince someone to objectify himself when everything is a subjective experience?

On my quest to veer away from attachment (to anything), I was pretty convinced that going impersonal as much as I can was the way to go. Not until I read three books that everything about the human experience is created by their own perception, their own imagination and therefore, extremely personal.I still strive to make my statements impersonal. That way, I don’t make it about me, but about us.

I squeeze in a few I’s, my’s and myself’s only when I want to single out myself from the common experience.

Wait, common? Acceptably common. Socially accepted common. The norm. But that thought is for another day.