Definitions Matter … Until
Someone Succeeds
in Corrupting Them
in Corrupting Them
Published in Marietta Daily Journal August 21, 2016
Definitions of just about everything
are changing. Recently I watched a video
in which Dr. Ben Carson, a man of science, was attempting to convince
journalist Katie Couric that male and female mean two different things. The good doctor was not successful.
“But Dr. Carson, don’t you think
that if one feels he or she is of a gender different from that into which he or
she was born, we should be kind enough to acknowledge their feelings?”
Again the brain surgeon did his
best. “Our gender has nothing to do with
feelings. Gender is a matter of fact,
not of choice. For thousands of years
we’ve known what males and females are.
Are you saying now we don’t?”
Even
when the famous surgeon presented a clear, respectful lesson in anatomy and
relevant psychology, Ms. Couric frowned.
Her argument illustrated that gender, like so much else, has been
politicized. Moreover, it is being used
as a cudgel to shame traditionalists like Carson.
Thinking makes it so, Couric seemed
to be saying, but that isn’t quite what Descartes had in mind when he said, “I
think, therefore I am.” Descartes was
comparing man to beasts, asserting that man alone, not animals, is endowed with
mind. Though animals may be “smart,”
they are simply sophisticated creatures of instinct, not of logic. Couric got even her philosophy wrong.
Carson’s exchange with Couric
illustrates the unsettling of so many beliefs that for millennia were settled. For millennia we believed that children need
a mommy and a daddy. Now, if Heather has
two mommies, life can still be hunky-dory.
Masculinity and femininity are out. Sexuality is so yesterday. Turn loose of gender. And of “home” and “marriage.” We’re all just persons. And citizens of the earth. Let us now all sing “We are the world / we
are the people!” Sing loud.
For
millennia, marriage was extolled as a fit foundation for societal
structure. Now, “a woman needs a man
like a fish needs a bicycle,” or so claimed feminist Gloria Steinem. Now, children need only a village (the new
word for family), of which government must be an integral part, say, the nanny.
Politically and philosophically, the
broadest terms we have used for the past half century to describe our world
views are liberal and conservative. On
this spectrum, the essence of liberalism is tolerance and the essence of
conservatism is restraint, reasonable attributes both. But even before Donald Trump came along, this
philosophical construct was being turned on its head.
Today’s liberals are not very
tolerant of their countrymen who prize liberty above security, or who believe
that an unborn baby should be given every benefit of the doubt when it comes to
dealing with when life begins. Incredibly,
“life” is one of those words that are now murky. Liberals in the media and in
academia have become most judgmental and condescending toward those who
disagree with them, particularly regarding “life” and sexuality.
Liberal once meant generous. The great liberals of the 18th and
19th centuries in both England and America were generous, open
minded, and prone to listen to views of others.
Most of today’s media stars and university professors cannot be so
described.
Conservatives have changed also, no
longer the restrainers. Like liberals, they
now believe in the perfectibility of man and are willing to support any and every
government program that might hasten that perfection. Their affection for Edmund Burke, Barry
Goldwater, Margaret Thatcher, and Ronald Reagan has definitely cooled. Somehow, their 1994 Contract with America got
buried in somebody’s desk.
Even Reagan’s “Government is not the
solution; government is the problem” is now out of fashion with
conservatives. They are quite eager to
go with Hillary Clinton in re-defining yet another word, taxes. Taxes are now “investments.”
This re-defining of words,
particularly as it affects middle class values, is part of the dynamic that
drives Trumpsters. “A pox on both your
houses,” they are saying to liberals and conservatives alike. Why not try a new guy who, instead of
professing an ideology he does not hold to, concerns himself with practical
things like borders, jobs, and trade, and who garners the favor of plumbers, truckers,
carpenters, and electricians instead of the intellectual elite?
Weasel words and ambiguous
definitions have produced a fountain of confusion in American life. Oh, for a Mark Twain who once implored us to
“use the right word and not its second cousin.”
Anti-Trump, blue collar bashers
probably don’t like Mark Twain, though.
He loved commoners.
Americans are yearning for
authenticity. The way politicians mess
around with words is not helping. That’s
why a guy who doesn’t mess around with words is getting so much positive attention
and votes.
Roger
Hines
8/17/16
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