“Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.”
~ Rudyard Kipling
My interpretation of this quotation is much too involved and lengthy to present in a lowly blog post, but I will try to communicate my position in the most succinct manner as possible.
To my knowledge the most powerful people in history did not use mind-altering chemical drugs to convince droves of followers to support their chaotic causes. You might consider chemical attacks and poisonous gas deployments as the use of mind-altering chemical drugs, but for the general population not receiving these treatments they produced fear, not behaviors born from modifying a brain's neurological composition. Re-calibrating or re-wiring the brain is the main things drugs do, they alter and transform how brains fire, how brains actually work. And what about the people employing the chemical attacks and poisonous gas? What was used to get them to perform these heinous acts?
Words. It's really that simple. You might considered monetary gains, gains of power, or other materialistic or authorial gains as the motivations, and you would be right in some cases, but words had to be used to convey these messages to relay the benefits of such actions.
Words are dangerous. Why else would these powerful people in history burn books, ban literacy among common people, force people to see and hear only what these powerful people deemed appropriate, indoctrinate the young with their ideals and beliefs by simply having them repeat a slogan, a declaration, or an oath over and over on a daily basis? Because words are powerful. They are dangerous. They are a drug. But just as some drugs are used to better our lives, words have the same potential. It just matters what words you choose to hear and say.
Below is a very poignant example of the potential of words:
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