What happens when words are no longer our common touchstone? Ever notice how we cannot talk anymore? All conversation, from dialogue to disputation, takes place against an assumed background of agreement about very basic things. Even disagreement presupposes vast areas of at least implicit agreement. Otherwise, conversation would be literally impossible. But what if even those areas of core agreement—mutual appeals to reason, to first principles of reason, to common words and the concepts they signify—have been radically, deliberately and systematically undermined? Conversation is the lifeblood of community; it is where we explore and find common ground, and teach one another about virtually everything, despite other differences.
When words no longer have shared and stable meanings, when reason and evidence cease to be touchstones of truth, a people are easily uprooted, alienated, and dispersed into warring camps bent on refashioning the world in accordance with the ideologies that have taken hold of them instead. The ensuing frenzied and genocidal atrocities of history—the French, Chinese, Russian, Cambodian and Iranian revolutions come to mind—are well known. We are currently witnessing violence—of all kinds, including physical—against anyone who remains rooted in reason and what words actually mean, and anyone who refuses to comply with their arbitrary dictates, or conform to their confusion.
Excellent compilation! Thank you. Really enjoy the humor-relief.
What happens when words are no longer our common touchstone? Ever notice how we cannot talk anymore? All conversation, from dialogue to disputation, takes place against an assumed background of agreement about very basic things. Even disagreement presupposes vast areas of at least implicit agreement. Otherwise, conversation would be literally impossible. But what if even those areas of core agreement—mutual appeals to reason, to first principles of reason, to common words and the concepts they signify—have been radically, deliberately and systematically undermined? Conversation is the lifeblood of community; it is where we explore and find common ground, and teach one another about virtually everything, despite other differences.
When words no longer have shared and stable meanings, when reason and evidence cease to be touchstones of truth, a people are easily uprooted, alienated, and dispersed into warring camps bent on refashioning the world in accordance with the ideologies that have taken hold of them instead. The ensuing frenzied and genocidal atrocities of history—the French, Chinese, Russian, Cambodian and Iranian revolutions come to mind—are well known. We are currently witnessing violence—of all kinds, including physical—against anyone who remains rooted in reason and what words actually mean, and anyone who refuses to comply with their arbitrary dictates, or conform to their confusion.
What could be more “wicked” than systematically and forcibly dividing, subduing, and silencing a people? And their communities? And families? If history is a reliable guide, such a dynamic—unless stood up to, and before it’s too late—seldom if ever ends well. Something wicked this way comes. And its name is “genocide.” https://mistermicawber.substack.com/p/something-wicked-this-way-comes?r=110wl5&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web