JIM JOHNSTONE

Language as Territory

This is sharp, compressed, and politically loaded in only a few lines. It feels almost aphoristic — like something between poetry and critique.

those
who inherited

the earth
decided they’d inherited idiom.

The Weight of “Idiom”

The poem pivots on the word idiom.

An idiom is not just language, but the accepted way of speaking, framing reality, defining what sounds “natural,” “civilized,” “correct,” or “true.” So the poem suggests that power does not stop at material inheritance — land, institutions, wealth, nationhood — but extends into control over meaning itself.

Whoever “inherits the earth” also assumes authority over language.

The brilliance is in the word “decided.” It implies this authority is not natural. It is asserted. Claimed. Imposed.

Dominance & Discourse

The poem therefore becomes about the relationship between dominance and discourse:

• colonial powers imposing their language,
• ruling classes defining “proper speech,”
• institutions determining legitimate narratives,
• majorities deciding what counts as rational, moral, or intelligible.

There is a strong resonance here with Michel Foucault, especially his idea that power and knowledge are inseparable. Those who control institutions also shape the language through which reality is understood.

It also echoes Pierre Bourdieu and linguistic capital — the idea that “correct” language is socially manufactured by dominant groups and then mistaken for neutral value.

And perhaps most strongly, it recalls postcolonial thinkers like Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, who argued that colonization happens not only through territory but through language itself. To dominate idiom is to dominate imagination.

Biblical Irony

There is another layer too: biblical irony.

“Inherit the earth” immediately evokes the Beatitudes from the Bible:

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”

But Johnstone twists inheritance into something darker. Those who inherit the earth become possessive not only of land but of interpretation. The meek become legislators of meaning.

The poem also quietly critiques universality. Dominant groups often mistake their own idiom for reality itself. Their metaphors become “common sense.” Their language becomes invisible because it is everywhere.

Questions Beneath the Poem

So the poem asks:

• Who gets to define what words mean?
• Who gets to narrate reality?
• Who gets heard without needing translation?

In four lines, it turns language into territory.

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