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Let me posit that there are two states a human being can be in. He can either be "intellectualizing" or "experiencing". These states are mutually exclusive. You might also call them thinking versus being.
In the case of "intellectualizing", words play the role of separating the individual from his experience and his surroundings. Words distance him from other people. Words distance him from himself.
In the case of "experiencing", we tend to think of words as a pale shadow of the experience. But in my (ahem) experience, it can sometimes go the other way. Indeed, it's possible to deliberately speak ones way to a state of pure experience. The words one uses when doing this aren't descriptive, they're creative--it's the speaking that causes the shift in state. The experience is literally that of the world being given by your words.
To extrapolate that to the pomo notion "it's not a chair until I say it is" is a little silly, IMO. But it is my opinion that words are not necessarily the tyrants they're made out to be. They're the tool. We're the tyrants.
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