Words without meaning

Words are important. They not only record and explain reality, they actually create reality. In fact, words are so important that “the Word” is actually one of the names of Jesus Christ.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

John 1:1-3

It should be no surprise, then, that Satan is interested in degrading our use of language. He opposes clear understanding of the truth and delights in confusion and lack of trust.

A story about definitions

I was on my high school debate squad for two years. Competitive academic debate follows a specific format.

After announcing the topic, the first speaker (First Affirmative) has the responsibility of defining the major terms to be used in the debate. The second speaker (First Negative), near the beginning of his or her speech, is to accept or reject the definitions presented by the Affirmative side.

The Negative team nearly always accepts the definitions presented by the Affirmative team. This is because those definitions nearly always come from a standard dictionary. Once both teams have agreed on the terms of the debate, they are free to focus their arguments on the pros and cons of the policy question before them (ie. the debate proposition).

I remember at one point we complained to our debate coach about having to provide definitions. It seemed to us an unnecessary formality that took up time and delayed us from getting to the “good stuff” — our arguments. He told us it was part of the process and to keep doing it.

Later in the year, I witnessed a clear example of why definitions are important. I watched a debate in which the Affirmative team defined the major terms in the debate topic in a way that strongly favored their side of the proposition. The Negative team, who should have challenged those definitions, was not paying close attention and failed to do so. The Affirmative team won.

The judge of the debate took a moment afterward to explain his decision to the audience. He said that no matter how good the Negative team was with their arguments and evidence later in the debate, they had already ceded the “terms” of the debate to the other side by not challenging the slanted definitions presented by the Affirmative team at the beginning.

A discussion of this event the next day back in our debate class really opened everyone’s eyes. Establishing mutually agreed upon definitions at the beginning of a debate is what makes a civil and productive discussion possible. The definition of terms is important because it starts the discussion on common ground before the differing points of view start to fly.

We asked our coach what happens in a debate when the First Negative speaker does NOT accept the definitions provided by the Affirmative team. We were told that the Negative team must provide alternative definitions. If THEY are rejected, the entire debate becomes, not a policy debate, but a debate over definitions.

I remember we were horrified at the thought.

The situation today

Our political discourse is dominated by issues that don’t exist.

Hamilton Nolan

Now it seems like all we, and our elected representatives, do is argue over definitions. Policy, the question of what actions should be taken, is almost never discussed anymore. Everyone is too busy taking sides and posturing for the media.

Actually, people don’t even argue over definitions anymore. They prefer to leave words undefined. Words and phrases are now used, not to convey meaningful information, but to inflame partisan passion and to identity which side one is on.

As used (actually misused) by the Republicans, words like “Socialism” and phrases such as “Critical Race Theory” are completely meaningless. They are never defined. They are just labels used as propaganda to stir up emotions against some big, bad, scary thing that “those Democrats” are supposedly doing.

All the time, money, and media attention that these nonsense “issues” take up is deliberately intended to distract and delay any serious action on the real problems of our country. Such tactics are surprisingly effective, but we really should know better.

“Flood the zone”

The Republicans have told us more than once that they are deliberately manipulating language in order to influence voters.

For the 1990 election, GOPAC, a group headed by Newt Gingrich, sent out a pamphlet called “Language: A Key Mechanism of Control” to help Republican candidates. The pamphlet listed “Optimistic Positive Governing Words” for candidates to use to define themselves, and “Contrasting Words” to be used to define their opponents. (See an excerpt here).

In 2018, then Trump advisor Steve Bannon admitted that his goal was to undermine liberal democracy by creating widespread cynicism about the truth and about traditional American institutions. He consciously and deliberately generated nonsense issues to distract the media and confuse the public.

The Democrats don’t matter. The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit.

Steve Bannon

Talking nonsense

Both Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy are experts at speaking profoundly about nothing. They constantly use undefined labels and slogans and buzz words to appear serious while actually saying nothing at all of substance.

This is nothing new from politicians. The venerated Senate filibuster, as originally used, was literally a political mechanism to delay Senate action by holding the Senate floor for hours talking about anything but the Bill, or other action, before the body.

The difference is that the old filibuster was at least honest. Everyone knew that the speaker was deliberately wasting time and that the content of his speech was trivial. Now politicians and TV personalities can talk for days and weeks about undefined, trivial, non-issues and the voters, the media, and other politicians take the topics seriously and discuss them as if they were real problems that needed to be addressed.

Death of language

Our language, along with our ability to think, discuss, and work together to solve society’s problems, is being deliberately destroyed by demagogues in the media, in Congress, and in our statehouses. Their program of destruction was dramatically accelerated by the presidency of that useful idiot, Donald J. Trump.

Our free, open, democratic, society is disappearing before a relentless onslaught of lies and disinformation and the twisting of words into meaningless catch phrases. Everyone needs to read again George Orwell’s appendix to 1984 in which he describes how language can be deliberately destroyed in order to limit and control thought.

Those of us who can think clearly and critically, those of use who read actual books, those of us who understand that words have meaning and power, must resist the death of language and reason with all our hearts. We must preach and teach the truth rigorously while always being an example of calmness, brotherly love, and reason. We must not allow ourselves to be pulled into arguments with those who refuse to listen. And we must always speak up for those who cannot speak up for themselves.

Behold, verily I say unto you, that there are many spirits which are false spirits, which have gone forth in the earth, deceiving the world.
And also Satan hath sought to deceive you, that he might overthrow you.
Behold, I, the Lord, have looked upon you, and have seen abominations in the church that profess my name.
But blessed are they who are faithful and endure, whether in life or in death, for they shall inherit eternal life.

Doctrine and Covenants 50:2-5

Sources

Hamilton Nolan, “Words That Mean Nothing,” In These Times, June 1, 2021.
Sean Illing, ““Flood the zone with shit”: How misinformation overwhelmed our democracy,” Vox, February 6, 2020.
Laura Frost, “You Probably didn’t read the most telling part of Orwell’s “1984” – the appendix,” Quartz, June 19, 2013.
George Orwell, “The Principles of Newspeak,” Originally published as an appendix to the novel 1984 in 1949.