If an event is cancelled, it does not take place.
The etymology of cancel takes us to the Latin word cancellāre . The term is used with reference to nullifying something .
Revoke or invalidate
That which is cancelled, therefore, is revoked or invalidated . The action of canceling involves making what was canceled cease to exist or be valid .
For example: "I am going to cancel my subscription to the magazine since unfortunately I cannot continue paying for it" , "The government is analyzing the possibility of canceling restrictions on imports so that companies that need to bring inputs from abroad can do so without problems" , "Due to the controversy generated by its violent and sexual content, the channel decided to cancel the series just two months after its premiere."
Suppose a person decides to register on a website to start receiving a newsletter in their email box. In this way, once a week you receive a message to your email. Some time later, this subject no longer wants to access the newsletter in question. Therefore return to the site where you had registered and choose to unsubscribe .
Repeal or abolish
Cancel is also associated with repeal or abolish . Currently the concept is usually used with respect to what someone does when they choose to stop consuming an artist's production due to some reason that goes beyond their work .
Take the case of an actor reported for gender violence . Faced with the evidence that comes to light, many of his admirers announce on social networks that they are going to cancel him: that is, they will no longer watch his movies or series. This is a way of condemning him for his reprehensible behavior that goes beyond legal punishment.
Cancel culture
What is expressed in the last two paragraphs responds to the so-called cancel culture , a concept that emerged between 2010 and 2020 to designate this phenomenon of stopping supporting a person or company because of their actions . In other words, when they say or do things that society considers inadmissible, those who respect the principles of this culture cancel them, reduce them to oblivion, as if they had never existed.
The popularity of this expression reached its peak in 2018, but it also encountered great controversy from those who support freedom of expression. The latter prefer a world in which opportunities for dialogue are opened, where it is not so easy to condemn someone but rather there are extensive investigations before canceling it forever. The instantaneous nature of social media is perfect for this culture, as in a matter of minutes people all over the planet can go from adoring someone to boycotting their career through text messages, memes, and videos condemning them. for an alleged case of reprehensible behavior.
To cancel someone is to stop supporting them, to pretend that they do not exist.
Cancel bad thoughts
Regarding one's well-being, there are various therapies that pursue wholeness through a continuous effort to prevent stress and bad thoughts from taking over us. The word "cancel", in this framework, is used in the sense of "cutting" or "stopping" a thread of harmful ideas, of getting off any path that could lead us to anguish, hatred, anxiety.
Let's think about the bad times, when we believe that everything is going wrong for us and we begin to describe our life in a fatalistic tone: "I don't know what I'm going to do anymore, they fired me from work, I owe two months of rent, I have power outages every night." weeks... I'm sure I'll get hit by a car tomorrow." This string of negative thoughts puts us in a state of vulnerability, clouds our vision and leads us to more misfortunes, which will then be justified by the previous ones in an endless circle. It is then that we must tell ourselves "cancel!", and look for the light, that which we have not tried and that can get us out of the well.