Words
The great and revered Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) - Indian lawyer, anti-colonialist nationalist and sage - was a man of words, great deeds and even greater character. Indeed, in one of his many, many aphorisms, he wrote: Keep yourself positive, because your thoughts become YOUR WORDS.
Keep your words positive, because your words become YOUR BEHAVIOR.
Keep your behavior positive, because your behavior becomes YOUR HABITS.
Keep your habits positive, because your habits become YOUR VALUES.
Keep your values positive, because your values become YOUR DESTINY.
I’ve always been fascinated by etymology - the study of the origins and history of words. Take as but one tiny example, the word lens - the glass that regulates light and vision in eyeglasses. It comes from the Latin lenticula, which is a lentil . . . which has roughly the same shape as the glass (or plastic) gizmo the oculist cuts and installs into our glasses. (gizmo, BTW, is a slang term of unknown origin). In Hebrew, the word for lentil is עֲדָשָׁה (ah-dah-shah), which is also the word for lens.
In creating a word for lens in the here-to-for dead language, Hebrew scholars searched various languages to see how they had arrived at a word for their tongue. So what did the Hebrew scholars do? They simply followed the etymological trail left by Latin-to-English. (Hebrew, by the way, which is one of the world’s most ancient tongues, spent untold centuries being a so-called “dead language.” It was given new life starting in the mid-1880s by a Polish Jewish lexicographer named Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, who all but single-handedly took it - Hebrew - out of the linguistic burial ground and breathed new life into it. Today, it is the one of the official languages of Israel, and the "Academy of the Hebrew Language” is still adding new words to its vocabulary on a regular basis.
New words are also being created and recognized here in the United States on an almost weekly basis by the good folks Merriam-Webster. In some cases, words - like ginormous and luciferase - are brand-new and already passing muster on anyone’s computer spell check. Then too, there are old words being recognized as having new, additional meanings. Take the word “victim.” Sure, everyone knows what it means: A person harmed, injured, or killed as a result of a crime, accident, or other event or action. But according to the October 27, 2021 edition of the Merriam-Webster words-of-the-week website, it now has an additional meaning.
The other day, a judge ruled that prosecutors in a high-profile case could not use the word “victim” in reference to people who had been shot by someone else. The men shot by Kyle Rittenhouse in August 2020 can potentially be referred to at his trial as “rioters” or “looters,” but not “victims,” Wisconsin Judge Bruce Schroeder declared that using that word to describe the men who died would be “loaded with prejudice.”
Score one for the morons . . . for as one anonymous wag once noted:
"Be careful of the words you say,
Keep them short and sweet.
You never know, from day to day,
Which ones you'll have to eat."
“Eating words” is a quaint expression from yesteryear. It does not carry the same warning power as it once did . . . thanks to the internet and social media. For realistically, once something is posted on the internet (either in print or voice), it’s next to impossible to delete it. In an apparent contradiction in terms, if you happen to delete something in your control (like a document or a file), it’s next to impossible to get it back. But the internet . . . that’s a different kettle of fish. Take Representatives Paul Gosar (R-AZ) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), who have enmired themselves so deeply in the quicksand of the internet, that no amount of backtracking will ever save them. (BTW: speaking of a “contradiction in terms,” quicksand is a fascinating word; sinking in quicksand [a mixture of sand or clay and salt that has become waterlogged] is anything but quick; it is a slow and agonizing process).
Within the past several days:
Paul Gosar has posted a truly sick video on Twitter (he has 177.1K followers) that depicts anime characters killing other characters with the faces of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and President Biden. It is still up for all to see . . . and as of this morning, has been viewed more than 1 million times. Outraged by this lunacy, people across the country have begun questioning whether the DOJ, Speaker Pelosi or House Minority Leader McCarthy are going to do anything about it . . . like arrest, censure or forced resignation . . . 1st Amendment be damned.
Marjorie Taylor Greene conducted a poll on her Twitter feed (she has 456K followers) asking them if they feel America should divide into two different nations based on red and blue states. She also discussed this possibility on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast, with the now-subpoenaed former Trump guru vehemently disagreeing. Nonetheless, nearly 50% of those responding to her poll agreed that America should be divided into 2 countries based on whether they poll majority Democrat or majority Republican.
Senator Cruz, was captured on a live podcast being interviewed by extreme anti-vaxxer Joe Rogan mulling over whether Texas should secede from the union, declaring “. . . if there comes a point where it’s hopeless, then I think we take NASA, we take the military, we take the oil.” (BTW: the movement to secede already has a name: “Texit” Furthermore, Senator Cruz has gone so far as to suggest that were secession to succeed, he just might consider Rogan for President).
One wonders if these words and visual images - none of which can ever be totally deleted - will ever begin to repulse or sicken so-called “patriotic” Americans; to make them awaken from their lethargy and ask "What hath we wrought?” I for one would urge Democrats to undergo some kind of political kyphoplasty (spinal stenting), in order to grow a backbone, and use the various words and visuals against our well-armed modern-day insurrectionists. These rebels are as potentially lethal to the future of our country as were the secessionists of the 19th century. Like their ancestors, these mouthy internet insurrectionists are threatening to destroy a country in order to “save” it.
The question is: do we, who form the modern Union, have the courage, the skill, the will and the words to defeat them? What words, behavior, habits, and values, shall we employ to secure our destiny? Perhaps the words of the greatest of all American, thinkers, leaders and doers, Abraham Lincoln will give us some powerful motivation:
“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves,” and
“We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the [people] who pervert the Constitution.”
Copyright©2021 Kurt F. Stone