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| Thanks to Wiki; William Blake's Oberon, Titiania and Puck |
I can't believe I am writing a post which could have been written in the 1930s in Nazi Germany. The purposeful twisting of language in Great Britain and Europe with regard to political terms has become an explosion in a spaghetti factory. I have been listening to television from several nations, reading articles online and conversing with people. From these sources I have gleaned several serious problems which I want to share, as a heads up.
First, there is a purposeful disassociation of the term Socialist. Normal usage of the word is construed by the media and private persons to mean either Centralist positions, or worse, Communism. The original meaning of the word Socialist has been obfuscated to cover so many meaning as to make the word meaningless. Not only is this sloppy journalism, it is done with agendas including the softening of hard-line communists principles now found in most Socialist parties.
Second, the reports which refer to "far-left" and "far-right" groupings present various meanings to these terms, which have confused the man and woman in the street. What those of us who are students of history or politics deem as "far-right" would be the KKK, other openly racist groups, fascism and neo-Nazi parties.
However, the far-right now includes mainstream, even right to centralist parties which have or want stronger immigration policies. Of course, the term is being misused on purpose. The term is used to cover anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage advocates, as if these people were terrorists. Far-right means in some places opposition to sharia law. That is a completely ironic use of the term.
Third, the news gurus also use the term "far-left" in confusing arrays of definitions. In my book of definitions, the far-left would include communists, anarchists, syndicalists, and some socialists. The problem is this. The term "Communist" is taboo in the Euro-zone. However, many politicians, or would be government officials, or even diplomats in the Brussels, Strasbourg, even Frankfurt actually hold communist ideals but are not labelled as such. They are called "reformers", mostly. The term "far-left" is used in an undisciplined manner to include terrorists, as well as political candidates in Greece, who the media refuses to label communists, although that is what the platforms of such persons looks like, when one can actually find substance beneath the rhetoric.
The terms "government", "sovereignty", "austerity" and "growth" have been bandied about so much lately that one loses track of the misuses of these terms. At this point in any real political discussion, the terms are meaningless. The left twists austerity into unfair punishment and uses the term growth as if spending will get anyone out of debt. Families know this is ludicrous and if the jobs are not there, if the industries or worse, if the population is gone which would create a strong infrastructure (population problems caused by brain-drains, contraception and abortion, among other things), there can be no growth--that is simply a fairy tale and the media in Europe loves this fairy tale.
I am concerned, as in the old days, at least in the English-speaking world, journalists and other writers had a common parlance. It was only the propaganda machines which used language to suit political agendas. Now, we have a state where one has to listen and look closely to find the Truth.
I hope the Vatican can avoid slipping into sloppy language, or vague language, which is another post, as this happened last Autumn with the horrible socialist economic leaked paper, and with other documents in the 1960s.
If language is corrupted either by propaganda or agendas, or deceit , or narcissism, we no longer can communicate. This is happening very quickly in Europe.
If Catholics can save the Truth through the Teaching Magisterium, we need to be very careful about definitions and language. The relativistic onslaught is weakening not only language, but how we think. Thinking needs definitions and clarity. We are slipping into the dance of the fairies.
When we cannot trust a common language, we cannot trust each other. We have lost our civilisation's ability to communitcate.
