Report Form the Front – A Fanciful look inside a linguistic POW camp

Headline: The bloody war on objectivity has produced linguistic casualties at an unprecedented rate. 

This worlds secret war on words has launched a strategic offensive aimed at linguistic cleansing called "operation definition degradation".

While large academic terms and sophisticated locution battle to maintain the high ground, the most tragic war losses are suffered in the plebian class of words and phrases.

For instance, the term "born again" is just one more POW among the many noble terms we have surrendered, with too little fight, and allowed to be taken captive; imprisoned in the "Stalag of Muddled Definitions". The population at the concentration camp “Muddled Definitions” is large and growing exponentially, and sadly most who are interned there are not expected to regain their original strength, dignity, or identity. This reporter observed with horror our old friend and well-loved term "born again" barely surviving in the deplorable conditions of the prison’s general population; rapidly deteriorating along with other age-worn cell-mates in even worse condition, some of whom were once extremely eminent expressions. I'm not talking about those recycled terms we lost in the pre-war era; lively adjectives pirated by inexperienced youth such as: "amazing", "fabulous", fantastic “, “incredible, awesome and "terrific". These terms, which once expressed much larger ideas than their size would suggest, and were able to color a sentence with bright associations; expanding neighboring nouns to mean: "overwhelmed with sudden wonder", "as a fable", "as a fantasy", “difficult to believe” "inducing awe", and "causing terror" respectively. These six sad terms now sit sullen and shackled in the same dark cell, wearing matching orange jumpsuits, and droning on the identical inane drivel. No, I'm actually raising awareness about once noble and powerful terms that swayed men's minds, softened hard hearts, incited sleepy souls into action, and silenced ignorant talkers. These words, sweet, and as accessible as honey on the low shelf were exchanged among the most common folks, and yet held in high esteem by civilized society. These simple words like "love", "peace", "sex", evil, "entitlement", "truth", "joy", "faith", "hatred", "community", "right", "family", "life", "racist", "wrong", "marriage" "mother", "father", "neighbor", "natural", "authentic", "epic", "spirituality", "gender", "sin", "afterlife", "success", "high quality", "justice", "legitimate" and many hundreds, if not thousands of others are now among the most pitiable morphemes. These once lucid expressions bore rich and substantial content as they liberally pressed-out (expressed) through conversation fully formed concepts of common understanding, faithfully functioning as the principal porters in the exchange of ideas. Now abused and despoiled, they have been stripped bare of their reputable robes of clarity and esteemed vestments of certainty. These broken words now subsist as loosely conjoined symbols of an ancient alphabet; mere skeletons of thin lines and emaciated dots. There’s no longer any meat on their bones or fire in their belly; their presence does not command a unique understanding, evoke a common concept, or elicit an expected emotion. Impotent through neglect, exploitation, and abuse, they now lack strength to spawn a simple gasp, tug out a tiny tear, or raise the hackles on the back of one's neck. These terrorized terms, once glorious for their precision, have not been afforded adequate representation in the courtroom of common vernacular, but have been condemned without trial, unjustly judged guilty of being too strict for common usage. Their own accuracy has become their accuser. They are now consigned to rot out their remaining days degraded, disregarded, disrespected, and too often trafficked as chattel slaves to abusive task masters and profligate profiteers; constantly pressed into service costumed for the pleasure of the present situation by the press, professors, pundits, and politicos alike. They are sentenced to obsolescence, relegated to relativity; you see in a POW camp reduction, not rehabilitation, is the captor’s goal.

One may ask "How could this happen while strict objective definitions still remain on the books? Why have we allowed these innocent terms to be captured and permanently detained?" Unfortunately, the judicial dictionaries remain on the shelf gathering dust thicker than the powder on their wig. A war act posted while the country slept permits incarceration without oversight. The judiciary is no longer consulted as arbiters of meaningful conversation; their docket is clear, the gavel idle, and the dock is empty. The honorable bench has been overrun by monkeys that consult a worthless “wiki” of their own making, and mock jurisprudence by referring to “The Urban Dictionary” for validation. The Party parties while vocabulary withers to vernacular, language lapses into lingo, and communication is reduced to “weak-speak”.

Beguiled to focus on her own rights and pleasures, the country could not be troubled when it came to protecting her own vocabulary, and simply failed to notice the incremental losses in her ability to effectively communicate. If one were able to observe our world from outside, they would surely conclude there must be some cosmic master plan afoot aimed at disrupting communication, softening the target preceding the final attack. Without a stable means for communication, confusion ensues; the battle cry for unifying truth is easily ignored, even mocked and hated as an irritating, disrupting noise. With only relative terms left in the vocabulary storehouse, a community is deprived of her ability to even recognize truth. In the new “weak-speak”, no one can call a spade a spade. Acceptable mores insist that one who wields the spade has the politically bestowed right to call it a rake or even a tractor, if obfuscation so suits needs of the moment. Inebriated by the excessive indulgence in redefining personal rights, the distracted masses have fallen asleep at the gate, contentedly oblivious to the presence of their scheming enemy.

Speaking for our unjustly manacled words and phrases, there remain a few brave men and women who fight for them; a handful of disadvantaged militia who still beat the drum trying to raise awareness of their obvious absence from civil conversation. Faithful prophets and poets who do not cease insisting that “Truth is not arbitrary”; “Words Matter”. Truth is pure, precise, and objective and words should be employed for the conveyance of truth, at least by those who know The Truth. Narrow is the gate and difficult is the trail which leads to objective Truth. Among those who even still believe there is such a Truth, there are few who find it, and fewer still who march that difficult trail. The handful of remaining patriots, enlisted to protect and disseminate the truth, are quickly shouted-down; squelched by the politically correct "loud-crowd". They are mocked, ridiculed, and even attacked for showing the slightest mercy or any act of humanitarian kindness toward these poor imprisoned pariahs. Even suggesting the objectivity of a mediating dictionary is labeled a "micro-aggression"; a treasonous contempt for the inalienable rights of any word to identify itself by its own definition. The only recognized dictionary of the day is the “wiki”; everyone has a right to personal definitions of their choosing. Even so, defenders of Truth soldier on, against all odds, sacrificing self to preserve a few. 

These unsung warriors are not alone however. Sponsored by a clandestine strength, they are supplied with power, ammunition, and logistic intelligence from an unseen and undefeated country beyond the stars. Their Truth originates from that land and is their precious treasure; an incalculable wealth which they carry concealed, as it were, in earthen vessels. They may feel hard-pressed on every side, yet they are never crushed; appear perplexed, but not thrown into despair; persistently persecuted, but never forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; often called deceivers, and yet forever true; unimportant nobodies, and yet well known and aggressively feared; as a dying breed, and they undeniably thrive; as chastened, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many others rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things, always bearing in their body the dying of The Truth, that the life of The Truth may be clearly seen, even without the words which once held meaning. Therefore, we do not lose heart; we know who wins the linguistic war. In the country beyond the stars the King sits firmly on His throne, Truth is at His right hand, and He will not be moved. The King has reserved his obscure thousands who will not bow the knee to Baal Oni (Baloney). Even if the fire of language is doused, Truth will not be extinguished. The words and phrases of our language can be incarcerated, but they cannot be silenced; they can be killed all day long, but they will not stay dead, not as long as there are faithful truth-bearers who will continue to employ them properly in faithful expression of The One Truth. Speaking the Truth in Love,  and always in Love, for Love is the very life-blood of language.


Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. We know our momentary light affliction is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Therefore we do not look at the things which are seen, but we look at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)