Language as a Tool for Survival

The general impression I get from reading this text is one of positive sentiment. Hayakawa observes the importance of language from a few different perspectives, namely its importance in the human existence, the externalities of its use, and the inevitability of its misuse.
If we were to look at life as a case study for language, as the author has, we can observe how language provides us with the opportunity to demonstrate our abilities and measure them against other’s abilities in the struggle for survival. Furthermore, and more importantly, it reveals the necessity for cooperation. What differentiates us from other living organisms is our ability to not only sustain knowledge, both in time and in space, but to develop it. The magnificence of our current progress is only possible through this ability of ours. One of the thoughts which the text triggered in my mind is the irony of how often we tend to not only take language for granted, but more importantly the knowledge generated through time. Taking the full implications of language for granted can be accepted as simply one of the many blessings we do take for granted, but taking the knowledge stored through langue over the course of our existence is simply inexcusable. As the use of the fictional character T.C. Mitts explains popular culture is merely a molded down reflection of the truth. We take ideas and concepts and by the time they weave their way through the social conscious of a given place they have become very different from the original. This is another generally accepted reality, however, it is very frightening to find a society which rejects the knowledge time has to offer!