Code Breakers (Part 1 of 3)

Start here. 

I'm not lazy, dammit. 

I'm efficient, and to some that looks lazy. Of course it doesn't help to be middle-aged and (slightly) overweight. Some stereotypes are justified. But even if 60 is the new 40, that doesn't affect my work. 

I happen to think that stereotypes serve a comedic impulse. Unfortunately, when misused, they exacerbate improper discrimination. Clearly, a person's immutable physical attributes are an awfully unreliable predictor of their attitude. Fellow Boomers, my prevailing attitudes about life were shaped in a crucible of American military tradition. 

Have you identified your crucible?

This week's comment (BTW, yours are welcome, too) deals with codes. No, not the millions of lines of mathematical computer codes that people smarter than me write in exotic languages like Python, Perl, Pascal, Forth, Frink, Erlang, Haskell, C, C+, C++ (D), Eiffel, Oberon, Occam, ChucK , or one of many scripting codes such as Beanshell or Mondrian (a combination of Haskell and Java). These codes, whose names resonate like Pokémon creatures, are written to create the programs and algorithms that let us play video games, text messages to friends, schedule dental appointments, write blogs, surf porn, order sandwiches, and catch car rides via your computer, telephone, and tablet screens. 

I'm talking here about linguistic codes, utilized by so-called humans, media types, and public policy advocates. You know. The "cheat codes" are used formally and informally, suggesting a manner that is, let's say, less than direct, and often misleading. Weasel words, wiggle words, any way you put it, abuses of language, forked tongues using cheat codes are the oldest tool the devil uses to deceive and defraud. 

The unwary must suffer the swampy mendacity of professional psychopaths who conjure black into white, up becomes down, male and female become indistinguishable, putting future generations at risk. And probably the worst effect of all is that evil and corruption disguises itself as something worthy and good. It is a way of talking without speaking. It slips past your common sense, hypnotically. It washes brains clean of natural caution and slithers into the listener's unconscious mind to open paths for itself, turning half-asleep audiences into victims of mass fraud and craven deceit. (Hello, Doctor Fauci.)

Sure, we are all guilty from time to time, but when you realize the extent to which language is, and always has been, manipulated for nefarious ends, it's easy to become disheartened. Again, I emphasize that we are all guilty in limited and varying gradients of degrees, but here I hope to wring out some of the most obvious examples, if for no other reason than that someone may spot them in common parlance. If you find it helpful, humorous, or even enlightening, I am so good with that

Anyway, stop calling me lazy. To do so would be a grave mistake of ethnic proportions. Thirty years after passing the California bar exam, I am confident when I assert that corporate lawyers are overpaid tricksters, playing games with language cheat codes. And to me, that has been the cause of even greater harm than the current digital "pandemic." And as for you medical doctors, I say, "An apple a day."

I no longer seek clients, but I did not quit "the Law." I just changed my number and address.  So here goes.

Whenever you hear the phrase:

 "With all due respect,"  

. . . simply substitute this phrase: 

"I do not respect you,"

See? 

Once you break their codes, then the true meanings become clearer.

I am talking about cheat codes for language games. Contrast oxymorons, which are combinations of words with opposite meanings. Language cheats are those occasions where weasely lawyers, and their ilk, use words in seemingly complementary, but ultimately meaningless, fashion. Spin doctors and lawyers can amplify, but more often they obscure, true intentions and hidden agendas. Language codes are a purposeful, sinister, spell casting, dark, political, art.

And the Road to Hell is paved with . . . good linguistic cheat codes.

Wise Men Still Seek Him

Now you may ask yourself, how do I discern a speaker's or writer's truthful intended meaning? 

Aye, there's the rub! Before say, 2001, we could pay closer attention to a person's non-verbal physical cues. Full body, face to face, implied meanings carry great effect when your are in person.

However helpful, those non-verbal cues only matter when your gather with other humans, outside of digital space. We are destroying humanity, one cyber-meeting at a time. The Spoken Word carries subtle and I think unmeasurable variations of tone, volume, pitch, and inflection, some are obvious, most are subconscious. You don't receive the full import of that from a Zoom call or a chat room. We can talk about the tyrannical impulse of muzzle mask mandates, and the unhealthy effects of remote learning on child development -- later.

Whenever you hear, "It doesn't matter." Be careful. Be very careful. It might. And you may someday have to justly and precisely assert why something does. And unless words matter, all Honor is lost.

Our multiverse is baked in with innumerable message transmissions which are accessible or inaccessible at different levels of reception. Decades ago, TV and radio broadcasts of "Your Show of Shows," "I Love Lucy," "Happy Days," "Charlie's Angels," "Mission: Impossible," "Paul Harvey," "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C." or more recently "Breaking Bad," Game of Thrones," and "Super Bowl LVI" were transmitted and continue to transmit their electromagnetic wave signals throughout Space. 

Ham radio hobbyists, walkie-talkies, CB truckers (!) and two cans on a string -- all have provided a method for humans to transmit messages across the divide, messages now ethereal, persisting long after their senders have exited the stage. Waves and particles from the past are now light years away. 

The intention of the sender's message becomes less urgent as Time passes and Nature reclaims. 

The emotions and the agendas necessitating cheat codes dissipates. Motives die. 

All that remains is Content. Thank the Lord.

Discern for yourself whether or not to give credence to random speakers to whom you may be listening (including me). Whether they come from the left, right, or center, whether justified or wrongful, whether on-screen or IRL (in real life) -- the fact is, if you pay attention, you will spot the lies.

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 © 2022 by Roy Santonil