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PERSONAL CREED
If we can accept the paradox that the real humanity of people is understood through
cultural differences rather than cultural similarities, then we can make profound sense of
our differences. It is possible that there is not one truth, but many; not one real
experience, but many realities; not one history, but many different and valid ways of
looking at events. Jamake Highwater, The Primal Mind 1
The word credo itself apparently means “I believe.” I often think even to say
"belief” and not "truth" feels like an acknowledgement of the potential veracity of other
beliefs, and the potential pitfalls of your own. There’s a glimmer of humble selfdoubt
baked right into the word. This leads me to what I’ve been thinking about for the past few
years actually. I had what felt like revelation even though it was painfully simple. The
answer to instances when I thought someone else was crazy (why would they do that?!)
was that “people are different.” It became a kind of mantra for me. And I think now, in
concert with other things I’ve found recently or have be drawn to for a while, I can
crystallize that into a tenet of acknowledging multiplicity . I found this also reflected in
bell hooks’ phrase “counterhegemonic worldview.” I’ve felt strongly for a while that I
want to push up against the “ultimately we’re all the same!” argument. While seeking out
sameness is valuable to some extentand I see howI think it can also be
counterproductive. Seeking out what we already understand and are comfortable with, as
opposed to seeking what we don’t yet know . Trying to find the common humanity that
“focuses on how we’re similar rather than how we’re different” reinforces what we
1
Since starting this project and doing more research, I’ve discovered that the person this quote is attributed
to is actually very controversial as a cultural fraud. I feel mixed about using his name so prominently. When
I came across it last year, it did encapsulate a lot of what I was thinking about and want to talk about. When
I dug more I found a big issue I don’t know a lot about, but I wasn’t able to find other sources that the idea
might be more rightly attributed to. So I’d like to work with the concept from the quote, but also
acknowledge that the attribution itself is complicated.
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already know, what’s not controversial, and therefore what we want to be told. It’s not
comforting to me, because I know there is a lot I don’t know; so tell me what I don’t
know! What do you have that I don’t? I want to know: tell me how we are different. So
for myself, this concept of multiplicity has become central in directing me.
I’m thinking of multiplicity as existing both between people as well as within one
person. I think even within one person, there are multiple ways of looking at the same
thing. We could call this contradiction, inconsistency. But even here I think of the validity
of multiplicity. I understand and even have the urge to comb out what looks like
contradiction (but they’re opposite, how can they be?!). But I don’t think this is always
accurate. I think about the Dalai Lama’s claim that neither one quality of a person nor the
sum of them constitutes the “essential self” because “even if I were to relinquish one or
more, the sense of ‘I’ would still continue.” Beliefs and the interaction between them are
malleable and resilient. To me, this amounts to acknowledging multiplicity , seeing
complexity and accepting contradiction as a result of recognizing those multiple
possibilities.
This leads right into the idea of fallibility . One interpretation from Michael Biggs
of one of my favorite philosophers (Ludwig Wittgenstein) is that we should “look for the
unknown in the familiar. We should not indoctrinate ourselves with what is known as if it
were imperious authority.” Again, I think of the word “belief” as an inherent recognition
of our own potential fallibility, that there is a sea of other options should one (our own)
fail. We can do so much, we can know so much, and yet we will still never know it all.
It’s futile to think we can, it’s fooling ourselves to be sure of our conclusions, and
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dangerous to forget we’re not the only ones. There might be contradiction as a result,
there might be disagreement, there might be conflict, but at least we’re not addicted to
our own initial judgements.
Accepting contradiction between competing beliefs also has to do with context ,
with what else is out there. As the Dalai Lama puts it, “we can only really speak in terms
of relationships.” I love this. I immediately think of the idea of context. Often, in general
and in studying ASL discourse in this program, I’ve been convinced that “context is
everything.” As my high school statistics teacher said, “looking at numbers instead of
percentages is meaningless.” To me, this is about context: I think about the denominator
as context for the numerator. And when I consider context I think of the inability to exist
in a vacuum, or necessary connectedness (dependent origination, as the Dalai Lama
might say). H is point about the “extended conception of self” where you can think of
your “interests within that of others’ interests” is another expression to me of the
interrelationship of multiplicity and context . “We have no means of discriminating
between right and wrong if we do not take into account others’ feelings, others’
suffering.” Not even so much because we should all rise to altruism, but simply because
we need the context.
I feel myself being resistant to general, blanket solutions and goals. For as much
as I respect and quote him here, this came up for me a lot while reading the Dalai Lama’s
book: “When the driving force of our actions is wholesome, our actions will tend
automatically to contribute to others’ well being. They will thus automatically be
ethical.” I think of hotly contested political and cultural debates where both sides can
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claim the good intentions behind this quote as their own: abortion, cochlear implants, etc.
I feel that we can’t rely on general motivations to make sure everyone is on the same
page. Relying on my own judgements alone to approach others’ wellbeing is half the
equation to me. Good intentions don’t immunize against negative consequences, and this
has become another mantra for me. While I don’t want to ridicule love or compassion or
concern for others, how that actually manifests means different things to different people.
So I arrive again at openness , multiplicity and accepting fallibility in order to consider
the entire context.
All of these thoughts feel motivated to me by wanting to respect autonomy . My
love is not your love, my help is not your help (necessarily). There’s more than one truth,
and it is incumbent upon me to respect that yours might exist even if I don’t understand
it. Respecting autonomy is the primary goal through an acknowledgement of multiplicity
and a counterhegemonic worldview. Autonomy and independence really go hand in
hand to me. So then I arrive at the tension between independence which I value by
considering the context around me of other people’s beliefsand
interdependence which I value because of that same idea of context, that “ we can only
really speak in terms of relationships.” Our interests and differences are related; that’s not
to say they are parallel or aligned or the same, but just that they can affect one another,
and even more so when there is a direct conflict. So while I value independence and
autonomy, there’s the ultimate project of balancing the independence of one person with
the other autonomies that are interdependent on it. I come back to the idea that no one is
in a vacuum. And from this, I also think a lot about the fallacy of “the view from
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nowhere.” There is no singular neutral perspective from above the fray. Within the logic
of the metaphor, we all inherently have a perspective no matter which way you come at it,
so we are all fallible, and there is always something else we don’t know.
Lastly, related to fallibility and multiplicity of perspectives, is the idea that “ethics
can be no science.” Thinking of Wittgenstein again, he said that his “whole tendency and,
I believe, the tendency of all men who ever tried to write or talk Ethics or Religion was to
run against the boundaries of language. This running against the walls of our cage is
perfectly, absolutely hopeless. Ethics so far as it springs from the desire to say something
about the ultimate meaning of life, the absolute good, the absolute valuable, can be no
science.” Part of why we struggle with ethics is about language to me. For as much as I
think I’m doing with language, that funny word “interpretation” comes up again, and it
means so many things in this context (which is exactly the point). Borrowing from Avital
Ronell, "...language...triumphs over the concept...infinitely and indiscriminately breeding
meanings that detach from the writer’s intentions and that remain inappropriable to any
single interpretation.” There are multiple interpretations of the same facts, and there are
even multiple interpretations of the same words. So this idea of multiplicity also comes
out through language. It’s no more perfect than we are. This speaks to me on a couple of
levels. First, the relationship between language and abstraction will never not be
interesting to me. But also the fact that the very language that “breeds” those
interpretations of meaning that “detach from the writer’s intentions” is what is in play
when we try negotiate these differences (of perspective, background, interest, need). So I
think about it as especially relevant during the work of interpret ing , when interpreters
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navigate other peoples’ language, while trying to minimize “breeding” meanings that
“detach from the [speaker’s] intentions.” Meaning is what we make it, which is scary and
messy even through language, but it can’t be divorced from context.
Connections to Interpreting
I think about all these concepts as one big interactive constellation of “meta
values.” They flow from each other. The constellation guides me because I acknowledge
that I can’t avoid it. It underpins how I move in the world and who I aspire to be as an
interpreter because I can ultimately relate every other specific value back to it. The
primacy of the constellation is clear to me for the work of interpreting, on a few levels.
The bigpicture questions of “what’s going on here? what are we actually doing when we
interpret?” is for me initially addressed by the multiplicity refrain: there isn’t one real
experience, but many realities. On a basic level, I think interpreting requires a constant
recognition of the fact that people have different realities from one another. Especially for
interpreting between signed and spoken languages, there’s an even more significant
“difference of realities” to realize between people I’m interpreting between. Multiplicity
between those people is important for an interpreter to see, for the consumers themselves
to accept (ideally), and also extends to myself as an interpreter in how my reality
understands and in turn relates to each of the other two sides. I keep coming back to this
concept and hope I can continue to deepen my comprehension of “counterhegemonic
worldviews,” as a value in itself.
I think valuing multiplicity must also mean respecting individual autonomy . For
interpreting, this relates to the swinging pendulum of interpreting modelsnot assuming
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control of someone else’s life and preferences, balanced with not being passive when my
position of power can be used on behalf of someone else.This also has to do with
decisionmaking and who an interpreter has the power to include or disclude in that
process. This is also a vivid and literal illustration of the “extended conception of self”:
not only in the way that interpreters and consumers on both sides intertwine parts of
themselves in collaborating to make a discourse (consumers authoring and interpreters
animating messages), but also in the sense that my presence as an interpreter will, no
matter what, have an effect on the situation and the people involved beside myself. In the
situations I will go into, others’ autonomies will be interdependent with mine.
I don’t think I can work as an interpreter if I can’t think beyond what the case is
now but why it came to be so, because nothing (power, language, perspectives) exists in a
vacuum. So it’s only meaningful to speak in terms of relationships. Sometimes I think
this is a key concept left out of cultural discussions, and when it is I feel the urge to just
shout: but, context ! There’s a history of power dynamics that produced what we live
today. So there’s a real reason that “reverse racism” isn’t racism, a reason that affirmative
action isn’t discrimination, and a reason that solidarity with Deaf consumers isn’t unfair:
the reason is the context of history and power that brought us to this point. As an
interpreter, I think I will especially need to hold close to the reminder that there is no
view from nowhere , which is to say, I am not neutral. Even when I want to be and when
I will try to be, I am fallible, I have my own context , and I will never not be another
human in the room.
Exploration of What’s Driving Me
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One thing I often feel in this context as I aspire to become an interpreter is a huge
sense of hubris . Before I started on this path in earnest, people would ask me if I wanted
to pursue interpreting, and for a while my answer was no and how could I dare even
consider it . It felt hubris even to try. It felt like the most obvious relationship choice to
Deaf people for a hearing person to make. It looked like such a monumental task,
responsibility, and skill, it was hard for me to believe anyone could do it, let alone me.
And understanding about the process and the implications and the work, I don’t think it’s
any less complex. I have a much more nuanced understanding now, so the sense of hubris
has changed. Not so much in size (less or more) but, somehow, the shape of what I know
and feel is different. The sense of hubris is a different shape now. It’s thinner but longer,
so it can slip between barriers in front of me and yet still exist, instead of being its own
barrier that prevents me from navigating toward or around it. This links up with a note
that an instructor in this program gave me, which I’ve written out and have in a glass orb
on my desk: “A combination of humility (which you clearly have) and bravery will serve
you well.” This is a more inwardlooking discussion than about the room, but I strongly
feel the tension between these things. I think both are necessary, and I can let the humility
part overshadow everything else, because I have so much awe and harbor a belief in the
“disbelief” that this magical task is even possible. Of course, I can never get to 100%
equivalence 100% of the time, and even further certainly the presence of an interpreter
doesn’t solve 100% of the audism and oppression in our world. It’s not a carte blanche
fix. Interpreters aren’t silver bullets. Interpreting doesn’t “equal” full justice. And...it
shouldn’t. Interpreters can’t be saviors, nor get to be. So while it’s not, and can’t be, and
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shouldn’t be a perfect answer to injustices, I believe this work can contribute something
to the total equation.
I’m very deeply moved by language justice. Language deprivation, and all the
cruel ironies that are involved, is deeply, deeply wrong. I see my role as an interpreter as
enmeshed in language justice. I think this can happen on many scales, even though I
don’t know exactly what it looks like right now. I know that I have immense accessto
knowledge, to people, to ideas, to resources. As I mentioned in class last week, there’s
this daily fireworks display I see when sparks fly between the worlds of ASL and other
language worlds like philosophy of language. I just happen to be positioned to have this
view. I see an immense power that ASL has to “talk back” to debates in this world. I am
also a handletterer, and these realms make up another constellation for me. I see the
immense power that visual language has to challenge ideas about language in general.
Not just what it is, but how it works. I have so, so many questions that I live in. What is
the boundary between images and language? When do we elect an “image” to the
elevated world of “language,” either written or signed? Is doing this sort of thinking, this
sort of work, a kind of interpreting between worlds, even if in a protracted discussion that
happens not to be in real time? I’m eager to both find other people who want to think
about this, and also eager to hang back, hold it in, and acknowledge what is and isn’t
“mine” to mess with.
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