PrintSeptember 4, 2010
Letting Leftists Limit Language
Every time I hear a conservative speak of "capitalism," I cringe. In fact, when I am compelled to call those men and women who cherish liberty and believe in the God of Jews and Christians by the odd term "conservative," I realize just how far we have let leftists limit language, and so, limit our power to converse and even to think. Every serious concept of political thought has been consciously misnamed by the enemies of freedom and faith.
What does "leftist," for example, mean? Nothing, really. If there were an ideological spectrum (there is not), then "leftist" and "rightist" would be opposites, and moving toward the left would mean embracing more the ideas of Marx, while moving toward the right would mean moving toward Hitler. But this is historical nonsense. Hitler and all the leading Nazis passionately embraced socialism and loathed "capitalism." All those murderous and hateful cliques -- Bolsheviks, Fascists, and Nazis -- loathed the God of Jews and Christians. All despised liberty, including economic liberty. Why, then, do we think in terms of an ideological spectrum? Our enemies -- the "left," for want of a better term -- invented the ideological spectrum. Why use the language of our enemies? We should not.
The terms used to describe gradations of the ideological spectrum are all Alice in Wonderland words: "reactionaries," "conservatives," "liberals," "progressives," and "radicals." These words describe reality only if the flawed, silly theory of Marx, written over 150 years ago and disproved by history in every test since then, is true. Marxism is less evil than farce.The "Marx" involved is less Karl and more Groucho. Socialists have the intellectual seriousness of the Flat Earth Society. The sad part is that people who oppose this quackery believe that socialists are sincere disciples of a respected faith; we treat these enemies as if they believed in something.
Make no mistake: Obama, Pelosi, Reid, et al. believe in nothing but power. They are not "socialists." There are no socialists in the world except those in mental institutions or very young children who have never seen modern political debate in action. The façade of socialism has always been the same -- a phony banner for the acquisition of power. Every brutal thug, every Hitler or Stalin wannabe, first champions the masses against the despised few who exploit them. It is almost impossible, in a free society, for anyone to exploit anyone else for very long. But the lust for power must be sated, and the fruits of freedom must be slandered and spat upon with invented words.
...Words like "capitalism," for example, which is as surreally devoid of real meaning as "Jewish science" or "kulaks" or "homophobes." These words are intended to limit thought, to short-circuit critical reasoning, and to funnel ideas into tight corrals. When we use "capitalism," we are presupposing that economic freedom is dictated by capital or by capital and labor. History, of course, tells us that economic freedom leads to an explosion of new ideas, innovation in technique, and scientific development. The relationship between capital and labor, the Holy of Holies to socialists, is dramatically unimportant in the real world. This myth, though, must be repeated often, that even those of us who love freedom accept the myth as somehow true.
I have long suggested that we call our common enemies -- the disciples of Alinsky, of Hitler, of Stalin, and the rest -- simply "Sinisterists." They all believe in precisely the same thing: power, and nothing else. They hate Judeo-Christian religious belief because they hate divinely ordained liberty. The confluence of these rages always leads to the same cesspool: Sinisterists hate America (its liberty and its faithful people), hate Israel (that island of liberty and hope created by people bound to stubborn notions of purpose), hate Christians (the principal liberators of mankind), and Jews (the unbreakable bearers of original moral values).
Whatever we call them, our enemies are not ideologues at all. They are creatures described by Orwell as Inner Party members. They exist to serve the Party, but the Party exists only for the purpose of perpetuating power. The enslavement of minds comes from the abolition of language and its reconstruction into small jail cells which prevent the subjects of Oceania from thinking, a process dependent upon words. That is why so many leftists flock to journalism, teaching, law, colleges, and politics -- choice points in human cognition which, if controlled by Party members, let language itself be enslaved. When we let leftists (or, as I would call them, Sinisterists) limit and control the words we use to think, then no matter what victories for freedom we believe that we have won, our hands and feet are still fettered.
How utterly dependent are our enemies on the quackery of an ideological spectrum with all its sundry, silly words? When is the last time that someone like Howard Dean or Harry Reid could engage in political debate without falling into a groove which kept repeating "far right," "extremist," or some similar slanderous sloganeering devoid of any real meaning? When a Tea Party supporter suggests a return of power to state governments, do our enemies ever -- really, ever? -- respond respectfully and rationally? The first and the last argument comprises personal attacks, crude insults rooted in the phony ideological spectrum, and use of words intended to end thinking rather than produce serious discussion.
Winning political battles is important, but winning the battle for our language is essential. Everyone grasps that the common heritage of Stalin, Hitler, Mao, and Mussolini is evil. Reject the "ideological spectrum" with its bastard words, and the enemies of ordered liberty have no sword and no shield. Champion the liberation of mankind at the behest of a Blessed Creator, when those dull armies of false words are exposed to sunlight, and victory -- final victory -- is won.
Bruce Walker is the author of a new book: Poor Lenin's Almanac: Perverse Leftist Proverbs for a Modern Life.
Bruce Walker is the author of a new book: Poor Lenin's Almanac: Perverse Leftist Proverbs for a Modern Life.
