IT should come as no
surprise that, as our society becomes more and more relativistic in its thinking
and judging, the words it uses become less and less precise. Today’s trendiest words are the ones
with the least meaning. Thus, they
are perfect for those whose purpose in life is to tell us what to think.
Consider "sexist," a
thought police special. I honestly
don’t know what this word means.
Boil its current usage down and it means whatever the writer or speaker
wants it to mean.
Essentially, "sexist"
seems to describe one who thinks men and women are different, as if they
aren’t. Thus the word has a totally
negative connotation which implies that those it describes are
reprehensible. At least it implies
that at any given point they could be, like when someone, lacking an argument,
wants to castigate them.
I recently read a book about
dating between men and women. The
thrust of the book was that men and women often don’t understand each other
because they think differently.
But the authors felt
compelled to point out in several places that we live in a "sexist
society." I had no idea what they
meant. Did they mean if we
didn’t live in a "sexist society" there would be no need
for their book? I still don’t know.
The intrinsic foibles
of both sexes are regularly lampooned in popular entertainment. Men are portrayed as bumbling and
arrogant; women as fretful and petty.
We laugh at these characterizations because we see ourselves in
them. Is this sexist? It depends on what you think "sexist" means, which points out
what’s wrong with the word.
How bad has it become?
If you object to Demi Moore, the oppressed but plucky hero of G. I. Jane, screaming "S**k my d**k!," you
are, of all things, a sexist.
***
Even the innocuous
"gender," which I always thought sounded melodic, is not
safe.
Conscripted by
militant feminists, it now connotes any difference between the sexes inculcated
by a sexist upbringing and/or society.
This implies, of course, everything
non-physical, meaning all non-physical differences between men and women
are negative.
Now you know.
Apparently, however,
the lunatic fringe of the feminist movement is not happy with the sexes’
physical differences either. Now
showing in your local bookstore is the scholarly Tome D**k for a Day. In it grumpy feminist writers describe
what they would do if they were suddenly endowed with the male organ they were
deprived of at birth, probably by a sexist obstetrician.
***
The word "racist" has
also passed into the oblivion of gobbledygook. It has much in common with "sexist"
except that it used to mean something, whereas "sexist" never meant
anything.
"Racist" used to
simply mean one who hates people of another race.
Now you are one if you
say or do anything that anyone by any leap of logic or stretch of sensitivity
might want to consider racially
offensive, or if they think you are thinking it "Racist" may mean even more
(less?) than that. Some believe
only whites can be racists, tying the ability to oppress—power and numbers—to
the definition.
This is nothing more
than exoneration by redefinition.
Since whites can be racists, hating whites for being white is somehow
less of a sin, if one at all.
Anyway, no matter what non-whites say about whites, you can’t call them
racists for it. Nyah, nyah,
nyah.
***
"Tolerance" is all the
rage these days. Cognitive
commandos, screaming bloody murder, claim its lack is the root of all society’s
evils.
When people say we
should be more tolerant, say of gays, what they really mean is we should be more
accepting. They don’t want us to
just get along with gays, they want us to accept there is nothing wrong with
their lifestyle. Anything
less is judged as "intolerant."
Tolerance, in fact,
belies acceptance. Why do you need
to tolerate what you have accepted?
Tolerance actually means, at most: I don’t accept it, but I’ll put up with
it.
The noetic Nazis don’t
directly condemn us for not accepting whatever it is they want us to accept because they know that would be
asking too much. So they substitute
"tolerance" for "acceptance,"
reproaching us for lacking the first until we toe the line of the
second.
***
When I was in high
school, my English teacher taught us about loaded words. Loaded words, she told us, are words that have
so much connotation that they no longer have any denotation. Her advice to us: Don’t use them. The term "loaded word" has since
been shuffled off as quaint, while
loaded words themselves have been elevated to moral
arbiter status. Somewhere, wise, old English teachers
are weeping.
In some sense, today’s
loaded words are like Princess Diana, in that she was popular because we could project our own meaning
onto her.
The difference is that
when they placed Diana into her final resting place, the world, rightly,
mourned. When we bury today’s
loaded words the only ones who need mourn will be those that had it
coming.