I’ve often wondered what’s behind power. What supports it? What makes it possible to control behaviors of others? Now I know and I wish I did sooner. What I’m about to share with you in the next lines can change your world view forever, and the longer you think about this topic, the more you’ll realize how much you’ve been played. Your mind has been hacked. Today I’ll talk about one single piece of this puzzle: the usage of words in the English Language.
The most important cultural forces – the media and entertainment industry, academia, business corporations, big tech, and governments – have worked together to make a specific set of opinions normative for the rest of us. Abortion, sodomy, fornication, divorce, contraception, feminism, tolerance, intellectual relativism, vaccines, success, and even happiness now follow mandatory assumptions from which you’re not allowed to deviate. In fact, justifying evil and deception has become the law of the land. Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy writes in The Origin of Speech, “Peoples at war do not call the same thing good and evil.” Definitely, as soon as we hear the voice of Christ, we’re at war with the world.
This kind of disease has infiltrated our lives through instant jargon: “That’s racist!”, “This is hate speech!”, or “It’s okay if this makes you happy.” There’s no room for discussion anymore. Once people make themselves comfortable and accept this set of ideas, they lay the groundwork to absorb those false - yet powerful - concepts into their own identities. Finally, they become loyal agents of the thought police in every sphere of society.
George Orwell illustrated in Politics and the English Language the problem of meaningless jargon by quoting a well-known biblical verse from Ecclesiastes 9:11:
I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happens to all of them.
Then Orwell re-wrote the text in modern English:
Objective consideration of contemporary phenomena compels the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account.
Have you noticed how the concern with not hurting people’s feelings has become an obsession in human relations? Avoiding conflicts at all costs has hijacked authentic love for the truth. Miserably, this way of thinking has walked into the Church. Some of her members will indulge people by watering down the gravity of sin. Words such as slip, error, failure, fault, mistake, weakness, or simply a bad decision now wrap mortal sins.
Trying to conquer sin by the manipulation of words, however, is like trying to tame a Komodo dragon with kisses on his mouth. Figures of speech are abused to cover up the problem of sin: covetousness is perfumed with the word ambition, without which your professional life will inevitably fail; pride is disguised as self-confidence; and wickedness is publicized as the full expression of an authentic human being. Finally, hoarding money, overestimating health, searching for eternal youth, and having a high status in this life complete the mosaic of personal success and happiness.
I once opened my work email and read two different statements about one episode: “Due to a variety of business changes within Corporate departments there was a position elimination that has impacted our Sr. HR Business Partner”, and “To adapt to our business's changing needs, we have decided to modify our HCM support”. At a first glance, I asked myself, “What kind of changing needs could we be experiencing now?” Well, it turns out that nothing actually changed except the fact that the company fired the human resources manager for a confidential reason. The sheer vagueness of this announcement serves as an example of what a cheap manipulation looks like.
Emptying words of clarity, meaning, or value seems to be mandatory now. For example, how did we go from garbage collector to sanitation worker? Since when did to die become an obscene verb? How does passing make anything better? Passing where, by the way? Can a meteorologist just say that it may rain instead of “We’re currently considering substantial precipitation”? Are we proud of our children? How about saying we’re thankful, or grateful, or happy for them instead? A word once reserved to call God – “awesome” – is now used to address us, not to mention tuna sandwiches as well. How much longer for somebody to propose a more “inclusive” translation of our prayers such as “… pray for us bunglers, now and at the hour of our passing. Amen.”? I don’t want to live in a world like that.
Orwell also explained that the great enemy of clear language is insincerity and that speech and writing today are the ultimate defense of the indefensible. In this case, the wording may be a little more sophisticated.
The Canadian government now provides citizens with medical assistance in dying, not suicide. America promotes women’s health care, not the murder of innocent babies. How dare you? In addition, when we label entire groups of people as “animals”, “savages”, “scum”, “threat” or just “terrorists”, the dropping of nuclear bombs on innocent civilians becomes normal, as if it was necessary, a patriotic duty. It wasn’t, it’s not, and it’ll never be. Brainwashing propaganda always uses this language.
What’s the root cause of all this madness? What’s the underlying mechanism that makes such monstrosities possible? My answer is twofold: idolatry and corruption of speech.
Only God can literally create something out of nothing with His words: “And God said, ‘Let there be light’, and there was light.” Adam, on his part, was assigned the task of naming all the creatures. He first recognized the existence of different animals and thus named them according to their characteristics. This is the main purpose of human speech: to describe things as they present themselves to reality.
When we proclaim ourselves to be our own gods, usurping God’s place of right, our immediate urge is to find a way to act like God. Next, we realize our tongues are the most convenient means for exercising that power. Finally, we set out to define our own laws and morals - the taste of unlimited speech possibilities is too good to be ever abandoned. Instead of describing things as they actually are and narrating events as they actually happened, we forge reality through words. Are you really surprised that now people must accept that a hairy dude in a dress is a woman because he’s using the word woman, or that two ladies are married because they’re using the word marriage?
Likewise, we pay for the money we earn, for the money we spend, and for keeping the big things we have. Think about this: if you build a house with your own hands so you and your family can have a roof over your heads, your debt with the government will be infinite. It doesn’t matter how much you have already paid of property taxes in the past, don’t worry, you will have to pay indefinitely more. Try missing some of those payments to see what happens. What about the permits? Permit to build, permit to dig, permit to burn, permit to take down, permit to improve. Who do you think the true owner of “your” property is? It’s shocking to me that these two words - private property - still carry a sense of dignity and deference in people’s minds. My concept of private property, however, does not involve paying any sort of rent or asking for permission to make decisions and changes to what is mine.
With the avalanche of legal marijuana consumption across the U.S., I’ve sadly met some people who were excited to be able to run a weed business in “good conscience”. After all, this activity isn’t wrong anymore since it’s legal now. They really think written words on a piece of paper engender a metaphysical reality – “If’s it’s legal, it’s good; if it’s illegal, it’s bad.” People can’t even imagine the fact that a law can be immoral or unjust anymore. “It’s the law!”
The use of abstract words and circular constructions not only kills the language, but also poisons our souls as this is often a way of hiding our sins, exalting our “greatness”, and lying to people’s faces, including to ourselves. But don’t get me wrong. Euphemism has its proper place in speech, for example, when safeguarding somebody’s name or protecting the innocence and purity of the little ones. The realities of life, after all, is a sensitive educational subject.
With those kind of exceptions in mind, concrete language improves our lives. Ever wondered why our resolutions fail? Or why can’t we persevere in our noblest intentions? One of the answers I found is the way we speak. Clear thinking inspires clear actions. But how can we actually do that?
First of all, we need to nourish a concrete mindset. Think in terms of action-space-time. If you say, “I want to be a better parent”, but then sit back and relax, you won’t get anything out of it. But everything changes if you say, “As of tomorrow, I’ll give my full attention to my children for at least one hour every day, from 6 to 7 pm. I’ll spend this time playing with them and reading stories out loud”; or, “I’ll take the kids to the park for bike rides or any other outdoor activity on Saturdays!” On top of creating unforgettable moments, you’ll help them grow their characters.
I met this fellow the other day at my parish - during a social hour after Mass - and quickly learned he worked in the business of “development”. The more he spoke, however, the more confused I got about what he actually did for a living. As I interrupted the talk a few times asking him for more details about what exactly his work was all about, he realized I was very persistent and finally told me the truth - he basically asked people for money to invest mostly in college research and projects. In other words, he was in the business of fund-raising millions of dollars. In fact, our conversation loosened up and he also confessed that words such as money, fund, and raising aren’t acceptable anymore. I learned that gift and development are the only appropriate choices now.
I couldn’t resist and asked him if he knew somebody interested in investing a gift to develop a traditional Catholic family. He just burst into laughter, but I’m not sure if he sensed how serious I was about my proposal.
I know I’ve been laxed with my own speech, but now I want to call things for what they really are. I just want the truth.
Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes’, and your ‘No’ mean ‘No’. Anything more is from the evil one.
St. Matthew 5:37