Strange Words for Strange Days
Charity.
Old version: Open-handedness toward our neighbour in need.
New version: Getting the government to spend other people’s money on politically favoured groups, at home and abroad.
All Men are Created Equal
OV: We are all made in the image of God and deserve respect. (Besides, an Englishman over here is just as good as an Englishman over there and we want none of your prissy dukes and earls who never did an honest day’s work.)
NV: The government should force people to pretend that we are all alike and interchangeable.
Serial Killers
OV: None of the notorious serial killers of the 20th century were Southern white men.
NV: When shown in the movies, all serial killers must be Southern white men.
National Defense
OV: Guarding the country against attack.
NV: Killing foreigners for Democracy.
Justice
OV: What is fair and right.
NV: What produces the most lucrative outcome for politically favoured minorities.
Truth
OV: What accords with reason and evidence.
NV: What produces the best outcome for politically favoured minorities.
Famous Person
OV: Someone who has done something noteworthy.
NV: Someone who is on television a lot.
Constitution
OV: What was ratified by the people to define and limit government.
NV: What changes society in a way that judges want.
Promoting the General Welfare
OV: Doing what seems best for society.
NV: Reimbursing the richest people in the country for their bad investments which harmed society.
Free Trade
OV: Minimising government interference and taxes on the free exchange of goods so that different peoples may mutually prosper from comparative advantage.
NV: Shipping people and money around so that certain interests who produce no goods may get even richer.
Entries(RSS)
Dictator
OV: National leader who cuts through all limitations on government power to be allowed to do what he wants.
NV: National leader only in a foreign Third World country who cuts through all limitations on government power to be allowed to do what he wants.
Foreign Aid
OV: Quickly giving money to a country on the verge of collapse and ruin so that its government and its citizens can just live on a little more for a little longer
NV: Subsidising exporters from one's own country through an indirect channel
Dr. Wilson,
This is all so true which reminds me of the fellow who said when the meaning of words is lost, the thing itself is lost. Etymology and our classical languages (Greek and Latin) should never have been dropped from the core college curriculum. What we have now and what your observations demonstrate, is that our culture is not cultivating anything but simply making it up as we go along. According to Plato when a culture degenerates to the point when one opinion is as good as any other, some fellow called a tyrant will come along and impose order upon the chaos. I guess it stands to reason since man is a political animal and it is not good that he should live alone. The pathetic thing about the current collapse is that it was not so much an invasion from without as it was a weakness from within.
I think Eric "George Orwell" Blair explained it best in his famous novel, when he showed that political terminology is so oversimplifying, that words do thinking for people instead of people thinking to put into words.
The most notoriously clever way of doing this may have been "liberal". Such a simple word, but twisted so badly in the Anglo-American world. Perhaps a convenient of killing all liberal opposition - it's probably why the UK Liberal Party folded in the 20th century.
Pursuit of Happiness
OV: Pursuing your ambitions within the natural laws of mankind to ones fullest, while not expecting others to pick you up if you fail.
NV: Free house, free health care, free food, free money, all from someone else's money.
Literacy
OV: Being conversant with the foundational ideas and literary works of Western civilization, together with an ability to articulate how those works translate into a humane life of the mind.
NV: Having a Facebook profile.
American
OV: Someone whose ancestors came from Great Britain as colonists.
NV: Everyone.
10th Amendment:
OV: Federal government has limited powers delegated to it by the states. All other rights and powers (except those prohibited to the states by the Constitution) belong to the states or to the people.
NV: The states and people have only those rights that the federal government chooses to give them.
Victim:
OV: Someone who had suffered an actual wrong at the hands of someone (e.g., being mugged).
NV: Non white, non-European, non-Christian.
Republican:
OV: An American political party generally favoring governmental activism and centralization and seeking to subsidize mega-corporations and mega-banks at the expense of everyone else.
NV: Oops. There ain't no new version.
While I appreciate where Dr. Wilson is coming from and he is certainly correct to note that Hollywood has a lot of serial killers from the South, I don't think there is much validity to his comment that there were no serial killers from the ranks of whiter Southerners. We had Spencer, the Southside Strangler when I was a kid in Richmond. Axeman of New Orleans...Charles Albright and Joe Ball of Texas. Lucas and Toole. And I am sure there are more. Sin is a universal condition.
These days, "promoting the general welfare" involves stealilng from the middle class by both (a)reimbursing the rich -- as Dr. Wilson put it -- and (b) showering the underclass with trinkets so they won't rebel against the rich being reimbursed.
Rob @8
The key word is notorious. Sin is indeed universal, but not according to Hollywood. It is exclusive only to the South, particularly the Old South.
Two of the most notorious serial killers of the 20th century were of Illinois, Richard Speck and John Wayne Gacy. Just like the two worst Presidents were from Illinois. They have a great deal to be proud of.
Wonderful observations. Restoration of our country, freedoms and treasures are dependent upon this courage to speak the real truth and reverse the looting of the nation and the murderous destruction of the world. Thanks very much.
As for serial killers, in our own SC backyard, there were Pee Wee Gaskins and the Gaffney Strangler. Clyde's point is well taken though. It does seem that whenever there is a scabrous character of mental or character defect in a Hollywood movie (i.e., Forrest Gump), he speaks with a Southern accent. It's just a general lack of imagination on the part of the scriptwriters and an immersion in cliche.
#12. Randall, I think it is more than lack of imagination or cliche. They fear and hate us.
While I do agree with your view of the modern term for truth, I would broaden it a bit to include more than just politicians.
Truth= whatever I want it to be.
The modern world "thinks" it has destroyed truth so that there is no right or wrong. We shall see who laughs last.
Senate Judiciary Hearing on Supreme Court Nominee:
OV: At least a cursory examination of whether the candidate has the judgment, the intellect, the character and the temperament to be a lifetime appointee on the highest court.
NV: A charade with the dual purpose of giving 24 hour "News" outlets something to babble about and to preserve the illusion that there is any substantive difference between the two major parties who will rubber stamp the appointment no matter the theatrics.
OV: At least a cursory examination of whether the candidate has the judgment, the intellect, the character and the temperament to be a lifetime appointee on the highest court.
NV: A charade..
One thing about the left is they know their enemies and are not afraid to confront them and whip'em. That one poor fellow Reagan appointed was done in within three or four months by his enemies on the left. This recent appointment will be approved without a hitch, while all the conservative republicans "demonstrate concern."
#14. Truth. Actually I did not have inb mind politicians but rather professors and the media. It is usual for them to ask not whether something is true or not, but whether it will help minorities.
FTA: "Charity... New version: Getting the government to spend other people’s money on politically favoured groups, at home and abroad."
You mean like the government forcing middle class tax payers to bail out the pimps of Wall Street for making bad investment decisions?
European
OV: a person born of a race originating from a specific geographic location known as Europe whose cultural inheritence was based on tradition derived from classical Europe and Christianity
NV: anyone that a bureaucracy in Brussels designates as such who must necessarily endorse atheism, gay rights, abortion on demand, and the non-existence of race all while deriding tradition as dangerous
Addendum to the above...NV should also note that a certain hurdle of wealth must also be surpassed to be sufficiently "European"
The entire definition means, for example, that Serbs = non Europeans, Turks = soon to be Europeans, and the PIGS are getting less and less European by the day
Clyde, you are right, the media do hate Southerners and I was remiss in not mentioning that. Day in, day out, one only has to watch a newscast or TV show to see their bias against us. We are the last group of Americans it is okay to ridicule and stereotype.
Randall, I would say we are the last group of Americans period.
Dr. Wilson
I think you are both right except I might include Traditional Catholics in the mix along with Southerners as the cannon fodder of choice for the media masses who dominate and control America's cultural image.
Tocqueville predicted as much when he wrote "I do not know of any country where, in general, less independence of mind and genuine freedom of discussion reign than in America.... because
\In the heart of a democracy organized as that of the United States, one encounters only a single power, a single element of force and success, and nothing outside it."
But who or what is this "single power" that he was referring to? .
My how wise (or lucky) was Mr. Orwell with his vision of Newspeak
He was referring to the mass mind that was the devolved form of Puritanism, that originated in New England, spread, and became dominant after Appomattox. It comes from people of mediocre minds assuming they know the truth and have a right to impose it on others. James Fenimore Cooper observed the same thing in the earlier 19th century as the masses from New England swarmed into and transformed his New York State. Solzhenitsyn said the same thing about American herd mentality and lack of individual conviction and courage as did Tocqueville.
Dr. Wilson,
"It comes from people of mediocre minds assuming they know the truth and have a right to impose it on others."
Yes and because of this rather arrogant desire to impose good ideas (any good idea), the reaction is usually to dispense with the truth in its entirety --- the familiar and long chorus of "Who is to say?" For myself, my family and friends I prefer the more desperate and relevant question, "Who can know the depths of God's mercy?" Thanks for the reply.
Clyde,
You are right again. Southerners are the only ones with any remaining semblance of what America used to be - the good America. one that revered family, tradition, piety, manners, etc. However, it troubles me to see so many young Southerners emulating non-Southern culture. This is obvious in even the way young people speak. The famed "Southern accent" is quickly vanishing, replaced by a non-rooted "TV speak."