Language, Definition, and the Power to Name Corruption

Sor Juana was acutely aware that language shapes reality—what can be named can be challenged; what cannot be named remains invisible. Corruption often persists through linguistic obscuration: what's called 'lobbying' might be bribery; what's called 'efficiency' might be cost-cutting that harms vulnerable people; what's called 'tradition' might be discrimination. Those with power control definitions, ensuring their actions remain unnamed as wrongdoing. Fighting corruption requires reclaiming language—insisting on precise terminology that reveals actual harms. This means defining corruption broadly to include not just individual crimes but systemic exploitation, not just government wrongdoing but corporate misconduct. Sor Juana's intellectual work involved challenging official language and asserting alternative understandings. Modern anti-corruption does this through legislation that defines corruption specifically, through journalism that names wrongdoing clearly, through marginalized communities asserting their own definitions rather than accepting imposed terminology. Language is not neutral; controlling what can be named is crucial power. Anti-corruption work includes the linguistic work of making hidden harms visible through words that cannot be rationalized away.