Think they will notice?
How the process of definition takes place is fairly obvious, or at least it was at one time. Through out our history we assigned descriptions and meanings to objects and concepts and created language. As time has gone by, our descriptions for many things have changed because various reasons such as culture mixing or newly discovered objects and concepts. However in the past few years, the
They started out even before they took office under a brand new shiny thing called “Compassionate Conservatism”. A calm, soothing and inviting sounding term, that calls out to those middle of the road folks like a sirens song. People had enough hanky panky in the White House for a while and decided they would try out this salt of the earth group of Republicans.
Little did many people realize that these were not your usual conservatives, these were a group of “new conservatives” that were fittingly labeled neoconservatives. Odd that no one bothered to ask themselves what a “new conservative” actually was. Since it was new, then it must have been something different before, or even nothing at all and just created out of thin air.
Something seemed a little off from the norm, but on September 11th, things changed. Almost immediately from that day forward the new conservatives began to show why they were new, and things started to get a little fuzzy. Suddenly there were calls for the government to expand and create whole new departments of government, new agencies and new spending practices. Indeed these new conservatives were something never seen before.
At the time this new group was redefining what a conservative was by proceeding in a most liberal and progressive way in the wake of the attacks on our country, most Americans didn’t pay much attention because we were in fear for our lives. We didn’t notice that our government had transformed while we were busy catching our breath.
Since then we have seen a few other new definitions change and spring forth from the English professors in the White House. In the wake of Abu Gharib we saw a brand new word enter the English language and that word was “Enemy Combatant”. Now an enemy combatant wasn’t really a soldier, wasn’t a civilian, it was something we labeled anyone we perceived as a threat.
Being a new term, enemy combatant wasn’t really defined before so there was no precedence and people weren’t sure what it really meant. To this day they are still trying to define what it actually means.
Due to this, there are people being detained in prisons who have no definition as to what they are, so the legal system awaits for a definition so it knows what to do with these people. Some of these people are probably guilty and some are not, but we will never know because there is no proper legal system in place while we wait for the English professors to actually decide.
We have even recently redefined the term “Bankrupt”, which should come as no surprise since we decided to engage in “No new nation building”, and invade two other nations with an eye on a third. We can’t very well have people with no debt running around, while there are newAmerican troops on the ground, that would be very un-newAmerican. The people are going to pay, one way or another and to be biblical about it, there is no escape for your number, and you are now part of the system.
It is the future I most worry about, because no matter what we are expected to pay our debts and so binding us to our government, and its ability to manage finances. If our government fails because they can’t keep their books in order, the only ones that have to pay for the mistakes are you and I which have little or no control over how it is managed. Talk about new banking practices, and I thought indentured servitude went out with Beethoven.
Strong economy is yet another term that has come to be redefined. Strong economy is most puzzling to people because we have to wonder, if this is a strong economy, then what is a bad one? You can repeat that new term strong economy over and over, and you can look at the charts in the paper and see signs of good things, but oddly enough, you can’t seem to live in this new economy unless you are either a
Here lately we are redefining what our own constitution really means, which is fine when it is discussed in open forum and debated over with great ponderance. However when you act in contrary to current accepted laws and practices, and then try to redefine what those laws and practices are after the fact, I think most people have a problem with this for obvious reasons.
Then one of the most horrific new definitions I have come across is that of nuclear bombs. There has been a great ad campaign to the public that as long as nuclear bombs are smaller than those used in WWII, then its kosher because not only are these tiny little itty bitty nukes, they also explode underground. So since they reduce collateral damage they could conceivably be used, thus making them a deterrent against places like
So there you have it, compassionate conservative means militant liberal. It’s a good economy for the investors of off shored companies. Enemy combatant means, well, anyone they see fit to label since it hasn’t been defined yet. Bankrupt means nothing since it don’t really exist anymore. Nuclear weapons, tactical nukes, big bombs, tomorrow, dirty firecrackers.
No need to go to war to change the world. No need to stimulate the economy. No need to concern yourself with personal rights or thoughts of nuclear destruction all that is needed now is to merely redefine the words you use to describe objects and concepts. Who would have thought that a small group of English professors could so change the world?
Flip
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