The Words We Use Define Who We Are As A Society

My trusty dictionary is as old as me.

You don’t hear the word “perfidy” used much anymore. And it’s not because the word itself has gone out of style, it is because the kind of society which acknowledges such a term has gone out of style. That’s why you never hear words like sacred, virtuous, chaste, integrity, decorum, modesty, depth, manners, benevolence, etc. How could such words be uttered in an era where Howard Stern makes more money a year than 1500 school teachers? How could such words exist in a society where Donald Trump is our president?

Honor. Humility. Forgiveness. Most people understand the meaning of such words, but when was the last time you heard them used in their proper context, in the best meaning of the words? We hear the word honor being used, but never with the sense of a personal code to which a person feels compelled to maintain even at great personal cost. I think the average person understands what humility means, but how often do you see an example of it from public figures? Forgiveness is no longer one of the greatest gifts one person can give to another but something that politicians expect to receive after making an admission after being caught doing something wrong.

The world we live in is shaped by the language we use. Definitions of words are vital in creating that world. We are led to believe that words acquire new meanings as time goes by, but mostly meanings do not change but are degraded by people willing to debase words in order to manipulate others. Even should a word’s meaning change, it is vital to retain an understanding of what it used to mean. A word never loses its original meaning, it only acquires additions to the definition.

I think it is as vital today as it ever was to have a physical copy of a dictionary in every home. Preferably an old one. We can find newer definitions online, but the old definitions are fading away. Online we can only acquire a superficial and ephemeral definition of a word. Meaning tends to fade like a voice on an old cassette that has been recorded over too often.

As meaning fades, so too does our ability to understand the world and our relation to it. Words such as heroism and posterity set lofty goals for us. The word posterity had the ability to lift us from the time in which we lived and set us thinking towards some better future, of which we could help create. Leaders from past centuries were fond of using the word posterity. They were far-thinking people and urged the populace to be the same. This word and others like it are not used in the present. Donald Trump is clearly the worst example, but the others are little better. They are a disgrace to those who came before, to those who used elegant words to state lofty ideals.

But words and their meanings began to be degraded with the advent of mass communication. Crude propaganda slowly took the place of honest persuasion. Meanings of words were stretched and butchered by advertising that aimed at lowering the level of communication in order to speak to an audience’s subconscious triggers. Unlike in a political debate, advertisers had no one keeping them honest, calling them out. Their ad was paid for, and no teacher, scientist, cleric, or philosopher was given equal time to point out the abuse of words. Language was soon entirely in the hands of paid marketers whose job was not edification but manipulation. From advertising it spread to all aspects of our society.

The definition of the word perfidy is “the deliberate breaking of faith: betrayal of trust: treachery.” From Webster’s New World Dictionary, 1966). You don’t hear the word being used nowadays, though you see ample evidence of it. It is the United State’s stock and trade, the cornerstone of American “diplomacy. When perfidy is enacted on the global stage, it reveals a country to be utterly without honor, shame, or morality. This is what we’ve become, but we no longer have the vocabulary needed to understand just how far we’ve fallen from former glory. I am not holding former generations up as shining examples, because their hypocrisy regarding slavery and colonialism is inexcusable. But at the minimum they were forced to reconcile their deeds with the morality that unambiguous definitions demanded of them. They could not hide behind cloudy definitions that lacked clear moral precepts. They were forced to live in a world where the people were educated on clear concepts and could thus set up a clear counter-argument against the status quo. But since President Clinton asked what the definition of the word “is” is, clear thinking and clear arguments had little to base themselves on. And now we dismiss arguments against the greatest perpetrators of war crimes by endless quibbling about the definition of genocide.

Get yourself an old dictionary. Leaf through it, and get a taste of what life was like when words were intended to make the truth more understandable, rather than more vague. Leave this bubble of meaninglessness and ambiguity, if only for a short while. Do what you can to get your feet on solid ground, so that when you return to this culture of illusion and lies, you will realize that there’s a light to be found somewhere outside the fog that hangs about us.

By the way, the definition of Wessonality, according to Florence Henderson, is “crisp”.

Like many of you, I’m lucky if I make my money back each month. If anyone would like to support my writing, you can find my most recent book HERE.