The Language of Secret Societies
Now that you‘ve been introduced to the concept of ―secret languages of
communication‖, let‘s talk about a few human examples.
You may never have heard of it, but there‘s a way of eating called the
―Continental Style‖ of dining which originated in Europe. With your knife in
your left hand, you hold your fork facing down in your right hand without ever
switching hands. Sometimes you even scrape food onto the back of your fork.
To some this custom looks unsophisticated – but it was a style of dining
adopted hundreds of years ago...
...with a very specific purpose in mind.
Back then someone in the upper ranks of society arbitrarily decided it was
the proper way to eat. Those around learned and accepted it because they
wanted to be associated with that social status. Since only those who weren‘t
part of this exclusive class didn‘t even know about this way of eating, social
standing and background could be communicated simply through the way one
held a knife and fork.
A ―lower class‖ person would watch this style of eating and think to
himself, ―That‘s weird.‖ But they‘d never USE IT.
And guess what? It became a clear and instant way to know if you were
dealing with someone of higher or lower social status.
Guess what again? Many people still use this style of dining to subtly say,
―I‘m a classy, high-status person.‖ Watch for it when you‘re eating with
sophisticated, intelligent people. And it still means the same thing to them.
You may not know it, but the exact same kind of hidden languages still
communicate all sorts of things about us to the people ―in the know.‖
Did you know you‘re supposed to hold your wine glass by the stem and not
by the hollow that actually contains the liquid? Next time you go to a fine
restaurant look around and notice how people are holding their glasses.
There are elite groups in many areas of society, such as in business or
politics, which use subtle behavioral and linguistic distinctions to separate
those who belong from the rest of the masses.
Does this stuff matter to you?
It should.
You might be thinking, ―Yea, but I‘m not interested in being a stuck-up
snob who eats a certain way and holds their wine glass like a girl!‖