Why Has the Physics Community Completely Succumbed to Linguistic Corruption in Quantum Theory?
The reason linguistic corruption in quantum theory has taken root and perpetuates itself within physics lies not in intellectual deficiency, but in the selection mechanism itself, which rewards conformity and punishes questioning.
The Logic of Selection: From Students to Professionals
From the student stage, the logic of selection is already established: examinations test for standard answers.
If a question asks, "What is the electron spin quantum number?" answering "1/2 " earns full marks.
Answering, "This concept is problematic; the physical spin angular momentum should be 1ℏ ," results in zero points.
Students quickly learn one crucial lesson: Understanding is irrelevant; correct recitation is what matters. Those who feel an instinctive discomfort with these terms either learn to suppress their intuition or are weeded out. Consequently, those who remain are precisely the ones most skilled at not asking questions.
Upon entering academic careers, the selection process becomes even more refined.
Publishing: Papers require peer review, and reviewers themselves are trained within the same linguistic framework. Writing within the standard framework ensures easy acceptance; questioning foundational concepts leads reviewers to label the work as "ignorant" or "pseudoscientific" (often dismissed as minke or "crank science").
Career Advancement: Applying for grants, securing faculty positions, and obtaining tenure—every hurdle filters for the same ability: the capacity to operate efficiently within the existing paradigm.
This is not a conspiracy; it is the natural logic of institutions: any hierarchical selection system tends to replicate itself.
The Perfect Closed Loop
This creates a perfect closed loop:
Linguistic corruption generates vague concepts.
These vague concepts are encoded into textbooks and examinations.
Examinations filter out individuals who are best at accepting vague concepts.
These individuals become the next generation of teachers and reviewers.
They continue to maintain the same linguistic system.
In this loop, critics face a structural disadvantage at every stage. It is not because they are wrong, but because the cost of questioning is exorbitantly high while the return is negligible.
Spending immense energy pondering "What exactly is spin?" offers no help in passing qualifying exams.
Writing a paper arguing for the reality of fields leads reviewers to dismiss it as "philosophy" rather than "physics."
Cognitive Dissonance and Institutionalized Violence
A deeper issue is that this system manufactures a form of cognitive dissonance: those who have never questioned anything, precisely because they have advanced furthest within the system and attained the highest academic status, are regarded as the ones who "understand best." Their authority, in turn, reinforces the belief that "questioning is unnecessary."
Thus, silence is no longer a helpless compromise; it is re-coded as a hallmark of profound understanding: "Those who truly understand quantum mechanics do not ask such questions."
This aligns perfectly with Wittgenstein's insight: once linguistic corruption combines with power structures, it ceases to be merely a cognitive issue and becomes institutional violence. It does not require explicit suppression; it only needs to make questioning "unprofitable," and the system will automatically purge dissent.
The Challenge for NQT
The difficulty faced by Natural Quantum Theory (NQT) (and related efforts) has never been solely physical; it is fundamentally institutional. NQT has always been moving against the current of the entire selection mechanism. To restore physical clarity requires not just new physics, but a courageous confrontation with a system designed to reward ambiguity and punish clarity.