It's an old concept, and I'm sure most of us already are well-aware of what is being perpetrated among us with the control of speech. We feel it in our everyday lives, but sometimes we don't realize the extent of the damage being done until it's too late, especially what goes on in the classroom and the delayed ramifications of that. Not too long ago I had a short, but eye-opening, conversation with a youngster who was genuinely concerned that I called an unknown person "he" instead of "they". I might as well have been speaking Greek. He just didn't understand. Here is a recent PragerU post addressing this psychological war. Of particular interest, watch til the end to hear the last one or two sentences.
What most of us may not be fully aware of is how many times this tyranny has been perpetrated among us or our ancestors, and what we have lost the ability to communicate or understand as a result. The Puritans even had a turn at this tyranny in their heyday, which is why most of us shudder at "vulgar speech" and make judgments on the user based on their vernacular, even though originally they were innocuous words, part of ordinary language.
Many of the biblical conundrums, I believe, are a result of this destruction of language. What was once easily understood is now mysterious or difficult to describe. This is why, in addition to studying the Word, I study my language, particularly the history of it. It won't take much of a dive into etymology to begin to realize that English today is a shadow of what it once was, torn by eons of psychological warfare just like what we are seeing today. The original meanings of words are not that special, but when you couple that with its usage today, especially in turns of phrase that no longer make sense, and begin make connections with other original meanings, slowly a light will begin to dawn. That first Aha! moment is like your first kiss. It'll ignite a passion.
Etymonline.com is a great resource for this. They recently developed a mobile app that accesses the same resources, and it's a wonderfully simple and free app. It's gotten to the point that I often find myself going to that app to look up a definition rather than trusting any modern dictionaries.
What most of us may not be fully aware of is how many times this tyranny has been perpetrated among us or our ancestors, and what we have lost the ability to communicate or understand as a result. The Puritans even had a turn at this tyranny in their heyday, which is why most of us shudder at "vulgar speech" and make judgments on the user based on their vernacular, even though originally they were innocuous words, part of ordinary language.
Many of the biblical conundrums, I believe, are a result of this destruction of language. What was once easily understood is now mysterious or difficult to describe. This is why, in addition to studying the Word, I study my language, particularly the history of it. It won't take much of a dive into etymology to begin to realize that English today is a shadow of what it once was, torn by eons of psychological warfare just like what we are seeing today. The original meanings of words are not that special, but when you couple that with its usage today, especially in turns of phrase that no longer make sense, and begin make connections with other original meanings, slowly a light will begin to dawn. That first Aha! moment is like your first kiss. It'll ignite a passion.
Etymonline.com is a great resource for this. They recently developed a mobile app that accesses the same resources, and it's a wonderfully simple and free app. It's gotten to the point that I often find myself going to that app to look up a definition rather than trusting any modern dictionaries.
