The English language is a strange language and I’ve been told one of the toughest to learn as a second language (I'm barely learning it as a first language!). It is true that we have some strange words and at times hard to understand rules. We have to, too, two or even hair and hare, or mouse and mice, but not moose and… You get the point.
One thing Americans are great at doing creating slang words. Not being a world-traveler myself I’m not sure to what extent other countries do this, but if creating slang was an Olympic event (instead of say synchronized trampoline jumping), we would take the gold. Think of all the ways to describe something good. You could call it cool, rad, radical, awesome, neat-o, sweet, dope, off the hook, off the chain, sick, wicked and so on. You can even call something good, bad (shamon’, shamon…).
Not only do we have slang words, but also depending on where you live or where you were raised different words mean different things. A shopping cart in the North is called a buggy in the South. Do you want soda, or a pop, or even just a Coke? In most places a bra is women’s supportive device, but in Southern California it’s a fellow surfer. These are only three examples of the differences in American culture and language.
Despite some differences in our language and some strange usages, language does carry power. Our words have the power to encourage as well as the power to discourage. They have the power to lift up and the power to take down. In the Bible, James, the half-brother of Jesus, writes that no one can tame the tongue, it is an unruly evil full of deadly poison (James 3:8 NKJV). In all of James chapter three he writes about the tongue and how deadly language can be. James knows, as many of do, that words do have power.
Unfortunately there are those in our society who are using the power of words for evil pursuits. If you study Nazi Germany you will see how the Holocaust happened. Unthinkable really, that so many well-meaning people would sit by while millions of their countrymen were tortured and killed. Hitler did not start out just gassing Jews; he first had to make them out to be the root of the problem, lesser people in everyone else’s eyes. He did that with propaganda. Using words and language.
What Hitler did is not new, it’s been done before by many groups, governments and religious leaders. We are seeing the power of words right now in this election season. Every word that a candidate says is scrutinized. Every gaffe is made into fodder for the evening news. So words have the power to make or break political careers.
Two words in particular have garnered much power in our society and are used by some groups to hold other groups hostage. The two words? Love and hate.
Love and hate have divided this country because these two words are morally opposed. Forget the fact that we have skewed the definitions. We say “I love my wife” and we also say “I love pizza” or “I hate abortion” and “I hate mushrooms”. So we use these words flippantly, which aides in the division because we do not have solid definitions for love and hate.
But the biggest reason why love and hate have divided this country is because we have reversed the definitions of the two words. Love is no longer looking out for someone’s best interests even if that means disagreeing with them. Love today is letting people do whatever feels good to them and supporting their decisions even if it hurts them in the end or worse, hurts all of us.
Hate is defined in our society as disagreeing with someone’s position. Far too often we hear “stop being hateful” or “that person is a hatemonger” or “how’s your hate sandwich taste”. Hate sandwich really?
Oh come on L. Kyle, this doesn’t mean anything!
Oh really. If someone is going to brand you as hateful just because you don’t agree with the popular thought of the day what are you likely to do? Not speak you mind for starters, because many see it as not worth the fight it will cause. Instead people whisper their true opinion or change their public opinion as to not draw attention to themselves.
It’s like that scene from Austin Powers where Dr. Evil’s son tries to speak and Dr. Evil keeps ‘shhhshing’ him. “I’ve got a whole bag full of shhhsh with your name on it.” Except instead of a shhshh people start screaming “Hatemonger!” “Hateful bigot!”
There’s an old adage in journalism that goes “Never get into a fight with the guy that buys ink by the barrel.” Why? Because they own the media. And if the media is calling people hatemongers then it won’t be long before the masses start believing that they are hatemongers. Most Americans are like lemmings in the fact that they will choose a belief system because Oprah tells them to.
Real love though tells people that they are on thin ice, even it means if it makes that person mad. Real love is honest even if it is not popular. Real love is telling a child that the stove is hot and not to touch it even though the child really wants to.
Some say love is like a river…wait…no, some say love is blind, but in reality love never turns a blind eye to wrongdoing. God says to really love then you must hate evil.
The prophet Isaiah said “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil” (Isa 5:20). Woe to us.
Leftovers enjoy.
L. Kyle
