The true origin of the oppression of the Deaf?

Evidently many in the hearing world think the Deaf have no integrity nor proper sense of being. Why? There are many historic reasons – and one of those could be down to a rarely explained shift in consciousness which occurred after speech had developed. The medium of speech was no doubt advantageous when it first emerged perhaps around a quarter of a million years ago. It evolved for a purpose which some say was so that humans could trap animals more easily. Its not known exactly when spoken communication actually began, but its somewhere between 100,000 and 500,000 years ago.

In these older human societies speech was still very rudimentary and gestures were no doubt still the main thing. Around 3,000 years ago that however shifted. Any speaking (and any awareness of the self) had been due to external influence such as voices from the dead. Humans experienced what were known as admonitory voices (or auditory hallucinations). At some point there came a major shift in which consciousness separated from this. Humanity then saw itself as being separate from everything else including nature.

This dividing line is said to have occurred around the time of Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey. The former illustrated what were the old forms of consciousness whilst the latter depicted the newer. This demarcation saw the emergence of heightened senses, including greater spatial awareness and a chronological view of time. Analytical verbal reasoning gave explanations for the various actions and thoughts the human mind could entertain – essentially a heightened sense of introspection, a move towards what was a highly evolved sense of separation from nature.

Plato’s The Cave ¹ came some three hundred years after Homer. Plato’s cave certainly illustrates an idea that there is an illusion and a reality, which in some ways respects the earlier demarcation which had occurred during Homer’s time. This shift was detailed by psychologist Julian Jaynes in his 1976 work The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. ²

The era in question was no doubt the period when subjectivity first began. In a sense it was a move towards a greater realism from the more animal world to the modern notion of separation from nature. By this one can begin to understand how humans had first devolved their opinions of the deaf. Those with highly aural and verbal ability soon began to deem the deaf were still ‘bicameral.’ What it meant was the deaf belonged to the old world – but not the new – thus the deaf were not seen as beings with a true consciousness or individuality. The deaf were closer to animals – and its a view that continues to this very day.

The bicameral mind is what enabled a greater affinity with nature and held communities together very well. It was one that managed very well without the necessity of language or speech. With the new format of speech humanity moved away from nature. It was easy to do because humans were the only species on the planet that could talk. Thus modern day consciousness is clearly a result of this particular development in speech and consciousness.

Jaynes says “O, what a world of unseen visions and heard silences, this insubstantial country of the mind! A secret theater of speechless monologue and prevenient counsel, an invisible mansion of all moods, musings, and mysteries, an infinite resort of disappointments and discoveries.” ³

From the above its clear Jaynes had thought gestures were highly important and that did so much more to keep societies and communities together. With the shift from bicameralism and towards speech and subjectivity, evidently communities began to split off and fight each other. Yet its debatable whether a new consciousness had actually arose. Psychologists and neurologists like Daniel Dennett thought Jaynes had ‘wacky ideas’. Dennett however came to appreciate that some of Jaynes’ ideas held a certain validity whilst Antonio Damasio saw that despite some shortcomings, Jaynes indeed had a good overview of how humans had originally gained subjective consciousness.

This older sense of having affinity with animals and the world is rather like the Aborigines with their ‘dreaming’ which saw everything as one living entity. ⁴ Indigenous groups do often think the modern world has lost its way with its separation from nature. This separation appears to be when many of the world’s problems had started. One of those problems has been those who are Deaf.

By way of separating itself from nature and animals, there’s every indication speech supremacy had been explosive and had enabled communication to leap from what had been a quite basic system into a highly developed and complex verbal system. Evidently those who were deaf or non verbal would not be seen as part of such an advanced form of consciousness and communication.

Humans are the world’s only species that drives by means of auditory and verbal communication. There’s a vast repository of lexicon beyond the realms of any other species of animal might possibly be able to use some form of rudimentary means of communication. Its why animals have unfortunately found themselves on the receiving end of numerous abject horrific endeavours by humanity – largely because humans think animals are ‘idiots’ and have no sense of morals or emotions. Its why humanity decrees itself to be the one and only ‘victor’ when it comes to the lives of billions of innocent animals across the world used in factory farming, vivisection, experimentation and other inordinate methodologies.

In a sense speaking has been advantageous but now its essentially a monster out of control – the problem is those who speak devolve great rhetoric that instigates what can only be pervasive negativity along with a penchant towards continued destruction of the world. What that means is speech society has very clearly brought the world to its knees. Humans seemingly can’t even debate peace but can ramp up rhetoric and conduct war under duplicitous means that has no bearing in terms of progress nor reality. The world’s leaders and politicians for example, every time they open their mouths, can’t see its themselves that are perpetuating a sheer, utter madness that benefits no-one in the long run.

For the Deaf community that world is what’s known as the hearing world. The Deaf know its problematic because hearing people have sought to exclude and even exterminate the Deaf. They insisted the Deaf did not fit in, that the Deaf were like animals and no doubt deserved to die like animals. In a sense the hearing deem that the Deaf are still in Plato’s Cave, not knowing what goes on about them. Not only that hearing people scoff at things like BSL screens at railway stations and on films, videos etc as if it was some extremely outdated thing. And the hearing definitely want the Deaf to speak, to have cochlear implants and so on. There’s also active experimentation underway to find a means of eliminating what is undoubtedly seen as a problem.

Those things are just part of the numerous ‘in-house’ experiences the Deaf have. One of the main thrusts of that has undoubtedly been oralism and its attempts to vanquish the Deaf. Yes there’s certainly increased awareness and attempts towards legislation that gives the Deaf better opportunities, but things are still shallow and Deaf rights and awareness is regularly to be found wanting in terms of actual success.

For example many hearing abusers have got away with it because they speak. This still occurs today because speech is the get out of jail card. In terms of child sexual abuse (CSA), the police and the courts believe the hearing more than they do Deaf children. Surely, in their minds, Deaf children (and indeed Deaf adults) are liars because signing, is in their eyes, no sort of ‘truth’ system. Of course the problem there is ‘God’s’ word is spoken hence its the one which tells the truth. The Guardian did a substantial expose with full page features highlighting how those who were hearing got away because the police and courts prevailed on their side due to the notion Deaf children who used BSL had not been ‘reliable witnesses.’ ⁵ ⁶ ⁷

There are numerous other instances of this too – including many that yours truly has experienced – both in terms of the general public, neighbours and even the Metropolitan Police itself. There seems to be a consensus that Deaf people are simply not worthy of anything, not even of the truth, but are seen as liars and its a narrative which certainly serves the consciousness of hearing people and justifies their stance that the Deaf are unworthy beings.

The shocking instance in the above CSA case was no doubt denoting was that the Deaf were not fit to be adults even, yes that is absolutely true. Even as a small kid (as explained elsewhere on this blog) sexual abuse by an adult turned into a horrific experience for me when the police simply did not believe me but they took lock stock and barrel the lies perpetuated by the hearing perp that he had never set eyes on me. Speech, oh yes most definitely that’s the truth! Its an example of how the hearing world has sought to maintain a certain semblance the Deaf are animals and do not fit into any notion of what could be humanity.

There’s no doubt that Deaf children do find all sorts of inflections and attempts to divert their true selves away from true citizenship and integrity within the grown up world and this is achieved by way of discrimination, exclusion, shoddy excuses that avoid the use of BSL interpreters, and a blasé expectation the Deaf simply do not merit any rights. It does not matter whether one is a child or an adult – if one is Deaf, that continunes to be a problem.

In the opposite way, the increased incidences with which the hearing wish to learn BSL (or ASL or FSL etc) does indicates the desire to experience forms of communication that do feel more true and substantial than speech actually happens to be. Could it even be an indication hearing people know their own world has gone sour?

Indeed that could be the case – for there’s every possibility this new consciousness and the exponential rise of speech has been a complete disaster!