OPENING SCENE: A patient is lying unconscious in a hospital ICU. The camera pans down to follow the plastic tubing from his catheter, flowing and bubbling bodiliy fluids into a plastic tank.
DR.HOUSE: "The drug addict . . . is peeing blood."
CUT SCENE: A med school class where Dr. House is lecturing. He looks at a handful of yellow crayons, chooses one and begins coloring in a coloring book.
DR.HOUSE: "How do they teach you to tell someone that they're dying?"
(Blank looks from students wearing white coats.)
DR.HOUSE: "It's kinda like teaching architects how to explain why their building fell down."
(Continues coloring book)
"Do you role play at stuff?"
STUDENT: "Yeah. One of us gives the bad news, and one of us gets the bad news."
DR.HOUSE: "What do you have to do to get an A in - You're Dying 101? Do they grade you on gentleness and supportiveness? Is there a scale for measuring compassion?"
(Changes crayons)
" This buddy of mine . . . I gotta give him ten bucks every time someone says thank you. Imagine that. This guy's so good, people thank him for telling them they're dying.
(Looks at crayon, exchanges it for another)
"It's brown . . . I don't get thanked that often."
CUT SCENE: House is standing at the patient's bedside.
DR.HOUSE: "You're dying."
(Patient shows concerned look)
DR.HOUSE: "In a few hours. There's nothing we can do except deal with the pain."
PATIENT: "Well, I need to go home."
DR.HOUSE: "You're not going home."
PATIENT: "But my dog . . . what will happen to my dog?"
CUT SCENE: Two Drs. Wilson and Cameron are doing an MRI.
DR.CAMERON: "Her neck looks clean . . . no adenoma."
CUT SCENE: Back to the classroom.
STUDENT: "Wait, wait, wait . . . the guy's dying and all he cares about is his dog?"
DR.HOUSE: "Any of you guys go the dog route in your . . . improv sessions?"
(Another student gives a quizzical look)
DR.HOUSE: "It's a basic truth of the human condition . . . that everybody lies. The only variable is about what. The hard thing about telling someone they're dying is that . . . it tends to focus their prioritites. You find out what matters to them. What they're willing to die for. WHAT THEY'RE WILLING TO LIE FOR.
Three years of law school, five years of government work, five years of corporate work, twenty years of self-employment, and the good doctor summarized it all in a YT video. You do know the character is based on detective Sherlock Holmes, don't you?
YOU'RE WELCOME.
I'd love to elaborate, but I have a lot of catching up to do, and a BIG trip to take this November. We're out of the golf headcovers game, so it's an economic reboot.
Also, I have a new handle on X : @Musical_Jurist ...
Stay tuned, fellow boomers, millenials, and genners X-Y-Z.
Jiminy Cricket represented that part of an incomplete persona, the part that relentlessly tweaks our moral compass. He irritates our inchoate spirits, urging us, never stopping until that moment you take a chance, opening your heart to being "real."
Conscience is self-knowledge. With it, you objectify yourself, and you recognize the possibility that, "Hey, maybe I can expend some energy thinking a thought, maybe two, maybe more - discerning whether certain propositions, certain thoughts, words, and actions are inherently right - or wrong."
Part 2. Culture, on the other hand, is one of the primary exogenous forces that shapes the thoughts, feelings, and to be sure, significant opinions affecting humanity. It lends credence to the rules under which we choose to live.
To minimize the impact of art, music, literature, architecture, animation, language, sports, etc., on human experience, will lead inevitably to crass forms of mechanistic materialism. Without the reflectiveness and introspection that culture imposes on human relations, society gets stranded in a brutish, ugly, milieu, where Truth and Beauty are nullified. Without the synergy of human culture, your existence is limited to self-defense and the cinders that remain after your life is consumed. Culture transmits human essence, thereby counteracting loneliness -- and insanity.
"Complaints of violins become my only friends."
--- Anberlin, "Paperthin Hymn"
***
DOBBS FOR DUMMIES: PART 3
The period of time between 1973 and 2022, during which Roe v. Wade was "deemed" valid constitutional law, is a classic "Lesson of the Past." Yet, saying so in 2023 seems so mundane. Routinely, we read that famous George Santayana meme/quote extolling the "lessons" which must be learned so as to avoid recurrence, so as to avoid repeating those many epic human failures,
These historical failures always come after a period of hubris. That once profound and conscientious quote ("We must learn the lessons of History!") is, in the Internet Age, reduced to a bland platitude on Reddit message boards, shit posts by Twitter trolls or LinkedIn comments.
And obscure lawyers' blogs.
That once thoughtful admonition, a great philosophical precept, has fallen victim to the Mandela Effect, and either we have forgotten what it means, or we no longer have the courage to explore what it really, truly means. We may express the platitude, but hell no, I ain't listening to some stupid "Boomer."
Don't you agree?
Santayana's famous maxim is often quoted on the internet, but rarely applied in educational discourse, less so in political commentary, whose primary aims are mobilization and provocation, not persuasion from thoughtful historical perspectives. Which leads to my point:
What "lessons of the past" are part of the abortion rights debate?
I have some bad news for you.
The literal Latin for "religion" (re: "back" -- ligere: "to link") is about . . . .
THE LESSONS OF THE PAST!
Thus, to "link back" is to revisit those precious lessons.
"Whatever means possible."
-- Malcom X
Living in the U.S.A., it is easy to take "Rights" for granted.
Because I do not want to wander in the weeds of highly technical jurisprudence, let me try to put this thought in the most reductionist terms to start this discussion of abortion "rights."
In Part One, I emphasized THE NAME OF THE GAME IS TO EXPLAIN. So this is the simplest way I can explain the Dobbs case, which tackles the legal question of whether a "right to abortion" exists under the Constitution of the United States of America.
In American law, as I have grown to understand it, almost every legal relationship between parties, and the eventual formal resolution of their rights as to each other, can be analyzed in two-fundamental steps. Call it the "Legal Rights 2-Step." It is a dance as old as the first human dispute over dinosaur bone leftovers.
First, ask yourself who are the parties, and what are the facts regarding their actual interaction? Formal written agreement? Informal understanding? Customary past practices? For example: Spouses. Mothers and Fathers. Siiters and Brothers. Aunts and Uncles. Landlords and Tenants? Employers and Employees? Citizens and States? Masters and Slaves? OK, some relationships are harder to define and account for than others. You get it. The nature of the relationship will define (and limit) the nature of the so-called "right."
Second, you must identify with as much specificity as possible, each parties "rights" AND DUTIES. This is the catch. To be validly enforceable, every legal right whether created, or inherent, requires a corresponding duty, or else that right is vitiated.
The bilateral requirement between rights and duties is what propels the Law toward Justice. Rights and duties, together, are the elements supporting moral authority and encouraging societal acceptance of particular judicial decisions.
Claimants always assert that a certain "right" exists, and has been violated, however, there is often little or no acknowledgement that the legitimacy of said right rests upon a corresponding duty. That failure to recognize, identify, and accept the "duty," or the "responsibility," which validates a claim of right is the reason those claims so often fail. Ultimately, I suspect the discussion of those required "duties" explains why the Court ruled that no "right" to abortion can be found in the Constitution.
Proper Balance
An elementary legal principle becomes controversial and disputable in the context of abortion because the single most distinguishing fact is that another human life hangs in the balance.
That is the life of the child.
It's probably best that I just shut up for now. A good nutshell version should leave you wanting to explore more, anyway.
Know this -- the single most irrational response in abortion rights conversation is to say that if you concur with the Dobbs holding, you are somehow "anti-woman." I happen to LOVE women. Ask anyone who has successfully fulfilled the role of husband and/or father over multiple decades whether conjugal "rights" with his/her spouse requires any corresponding "duties."
Simply put, any discussion of "rights" means -- it works both ways.
That is what we call "right."
***
Finally, we should examine, in a nutshell, the methodology employed by the Court to reach this
conclusion, i.e., that there is no constitutional "right" to abort a child. I'm among those lawyers somewhat terrified at the
prospect of having to defend my home from left-wing loonies storming my neighborhood, simply because I happen to study law, and hold deep respect
our written Constitution.
So it's like this, like it or not, quick and dirty. Here is why there is NO Federal "right" to abortion:
1. THE ISSUE PRESENTED:
Whether all pre-viability prohibitions on elective abortions are constitutional or not?
Holding: Pre-viability prohibition of abortion is constitutional.
2. CASE LAW - SOURCES:
Any ruling for or against the existence of an abortion right in the constitution must be based on an examination of the reasoning and analysis used in Roe v. Wade (1973) and Casey v. Planned Parenthood (1992).
3. ABORTION RIGHT - SOURCES
All constitutional rights must necessarily derive from:
A. The actual language of the Constitution - abortion clearly does not.
B. The fundamental interest in Liberty, substantiated by due process rights inferred from the 14th Amendment and the 1st through 8th Amendments - determined by the Glucksberg and Palko tests.
C. Glucksberg: is the right "deeply rooted" in the history and traditions of the law?
D. Palko: is the right implicit in the concept of "ordered Liberty?"
4. THE LESSONS OF HISTORY- Application of the Glucksberg and Palko tests
I read these tests to be intertwined, not severable components, but each is useful to define the other. In other words, the lessons of history, clearly examined, help answer the question of whether abortion is a "fundamental" constitutional right.
The presumption is that "ordered Liberty" is a desirable aim.
If you are an anarchist, then, obviously, the history and traditions of the law implicit in the concept of ordered Liberty, are irrelevant to YOUR believe in the existence or non-existence of legal rights. To ignore the lessons of history, pretty much renders social experience and the pursuit of Reason in human discourse as intrusions into your little hermeneutic shell. Duty be damned.
As far as their appication, Justice Alito gives a truly intellectually fascinating examination of the law of "quickening," which was the historical legal occurence before the term "viability" came into common parlance. In general, and overwhelmingly so, it was always a crime to kill a baby, whose life and "personhood" was all the more recognized with its "quickening" in the womb. All you Moms and Dads who have ever felt a baby's kick know the "quickening."
Regartding the history and traditions of the law, the Court's opinion is that the Roe and Casey rulings, upon which the abortion right has rested, made no serious effort to apply the lessons of history.
The fundamental flaw of Roe is that it completely disregards hundreds of years of legal history, and conjures up a legal right that had previously been seen a crime. This error would have been made even outside the bounds of American jurisprudence, as historically, nearly all legal regimes found abortion to be a crime.
Casey made even less effort to examine the roots of abortion law, and even undermined the attempts made in Roe to judicially legislate the boundaries of permissible abortion. It was admittedly a missed opportunity to overrule Roe in 1992, and in the Court's view, is now recitfied with Dobbs.
Thus, after a serious, tedious, application of the lessons of history, through the tests established in prior cases (Glucksberg and Palko), the only conclusion the court could reasonably find was this:
CONCLUSION: THE CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO ABORTION IS NOT DEEPLY ROOTED IN THE HISTORY AND TRADITIONS OF THE LAW, AND IT IS NOT IMPLICIT IN THE CONCEPT OF ORDERED LIBERTY.
Hello again, Boomers, Jonesers, and Non-Boomers alike.
Nothing to talk about lately?
What do we Americans do when the temperature starts climbing above 80, and the lawn needs mowing?
Well, for the last couple of centuries, there was this thing called Our National Pastime. Notice the word "pastime" suggests an activity unabashedly and unequivocally meant to be an acceptable and civil way to pass time. I would even go so far to say, pre-Internet distraction, there was a tapestry. a weaving of the fabric of your cultural character in sport, a mythos, conjured and nurtured for the benefit of inter-generational respect and civility. Heck, even affection. Love you, dad.
Alas, locusts and honey will have to suffice anymore
"Oh, there you go again 15, being literal, and trying to find out what words mean."
I suppose so. Unfortunately, in my blogging experience, if you are a fan of scholarly etymology and reasonable contextual usage, with a dash of tropism, you are now generally considered to be A REAL ASSHOLE in cyberspace.
I humbly accept your unjustified aspersions, if it means I can "pass time" peacefully, and scribble away this "old man rant" verbiage in a constructive manner, and fully exploit the legal training for which I so sadly (perhaps foolishly) overpaid.
Well, it is indeed the middle of beisból season, and my team is awesome.
Having relocated to the capital of the third world, Los Angeles, in 1987, I eventually became a Dodger fan. It was like Saul on the Road to Damascus. Do as the Romans do. I suddenly recalled my Little League team was called the "Dodgers." The circle was complete. I had left (one of) my childhood homes (San Diego, inter alia), to live under the bright lights of Hollywood, and presto!
Assimilation happens.
Back to baseball. In lower level and recreational leagues, you may know there is a rule called "the Mercy Rule." If a team was leading by more than ten runs after three (or 4?) innings, the game is over. The team leading the game wins, even though you have not played every inning of a regulation game. Simple concept, designed more than likely to save the kids from embarrassment, as well as save the parents' time.
You may ask yourself, as I do, is there a real world equivalent of the Mercy Rule?
Have you ever seen a contest, or conflict, that reached the point where everyone thinks:
"OMG, this is just not a fair fight. It's almost laughable to continue. We really should \just end it here. We know who will win this thing."
Oh, by the way,
Someone in the halls of the Supreme Court of the United States is in BIG trouble. Unless they abort the prosecution.
Congress has indicted itself by sending taxpayer money to their Ukrainian subsidiaries. That should resonate well in minority communities.
John Durham has obtained voluminous discovery documents pointing to a conviction of a top Democrat lawyer, who did NOT act on behalf of the Clinton campaign. Right.
Trump-endorsed candidates are 58-1 (as of this post) in their primary contests. But Biden got 81 million votes.
Middle Eastern governments are reportedly refusing to take calls from the POTUS. But at least we are energy indepen -- never mind.
The stock market has tanked, along with everyone's (hello, Boomers) 401k retirement assets. Capitalism sucks, except when you need a cup of coffee.
Inflation is approaching double digits, eating into retiree savings plans. What COVID hasn't killed, the Federal Reserve can.
Interest rates are projected to rise +/- 50 basis points in 2022. But I repeat myself.
Our Southern Border is worse than a sieve. It is a port of entry for scofflaws. I'm being nice here.
The newest SCOTUS nominee cannot even attempt to define a "woman." Sheee-iiit.
Parents who disagree with sexual indoctrination in public schools were labeled FBI "terrorists." Poking mama bear, eh?
No one seriously believes anymore the information broadcast from mainstream sources. QED.
What happened to the "pandemic?" I guess we are all sick of the lies.
There is no mercy rule in real life. Only zombies and zombie companies.
I'll stop here for brevity's sake.
If you don't know by now, the REPUBLIC of the United States was ATTACKED on Nov. 3, 2020.
From where I sit, we are now in counter-attack mode.
“By a faction, I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a
majority or a minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by
some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights
of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the
community.”
James Madison
Break it down, nerds.
If not, we will know how it feels to be thick as a brick.
So I had a nice two-week travel break, thanks.
I got to see the kids. I got to visit one of the oldest lighthouses in United States -- Beavertail. I also got to revisit a "road not taken" by taking pictures at the gate of the Naval Academy in Annapolis.
And last but not least, I found another topic that interests me.
These next few weeks, I will talk about the heavy conflicts in the political realm, circa 2022. Social life is so fractured, yet, it isn't as if great minds haven't thought of these social problems before. It may be good to review the major ideas -- what did primary authors of our Constitution say? What actuallyisthe best wayto structure a form of government that acknowledges, accounts for, and deals with, the problem of factions and factionalism?
Madison 's epic argument is presented in the pages of Federalist #10,
There is a lot to unpack here.
I try to make the complex understandable, but that is no guarantee that I won't be subject to criticism. Bring it on. Some old guy on the internet will not help restore populist fervor to preserve, protect, and defend constitutional principles that were reduced to writing back in 1789.
JUST KNOW THIS: I am not a Russian disinformation agent.
Now, if you truly believe that words used in the late18th Century carry a substantively different meaning than today, even though they are being used in the exact same context, or if you actually think that the Constitution of the United States of America is some cultish "code" for white supremacy, then for the sake of your mental health, you should probably just go away. Please, politely, go away. Your mind is incapable of processing complex solutions to timeless questions about human society, presented rationally, that have been pondered by wise and gifted minds over the years. If you don't think we humans have lived -- for centuries -- at war against monarchic and oligarchic oppression, you are quite simply out of your element for this content. You need to connect more dots, especially the ones staring you in the face and biting you in the ass, trying to enslave you.
So many poor lost souls have been deceived, and I suspect it is because of the fake term "higher education." Too many young skulls full of mush are misled to think meaning is determined under the "Humpty Dumpty Theory of Language, i.e., words mean whatever their user wants them to mean.
That maybe okay for academic purposes, but the difference between objective communication standards ("words mean things") and subjective social expression ("words only mean what I say they mean") is essentially the same difference between coitus and masturbation.
You feel great at the end, but with the latter, nobody can relate to how you got there.
Let's find out how we got here. Let's examine how we (Americans) should deal with factions.
That's right! The subject was cheat codes, and the linguistic fuckery that is more than prevalent in MSM, so much so that Hunter's Laptop was "Russian Disinformation" only until the crime boss could begin pretending to lead the United States. In less upright sectors of the legal profession, it is called "terms of art." The lies we have uncovered (together) are too numerous to review. Their deceptions create dragons, imagined and real, munching mushroom clouds on the world stage. Their stratospheric falsehoods wear legal trappings, sheepskin garbed, traps to hypnotize, pervert, and enslave our sad, opiated, and most of all, unthinking fellow human beings.
I have no doubt that you folks, you, the rational, and the rest who cannot care less about political agendas, have long disspelled the notion that legacy mass communication contain a shred of reliable or actionable information. Simple truths are outstanding mental floss. Try them.
Yes, you are a force for human liberation. But with great Freedom comes great Responsibility. No "RIGHTS" at law can be recognized as valid or enforceable without corresponding "DUTIES." Simplistic aphorisms resonate as applicable truths because they are expressly derived from natural existence, and common experience, not from some synthetic form of hubris. This explains why a semester of introductory economics can be compressed into the saying, "There is no such thing as a free lunch." Or more succinctly, "Know Supply and Demand." I would add, "Do the Math."
For
those of us seeking to establish some baseline for determining the validity of news reports through analysis of data sets, here is one, graphically represented in Cartesian
coordinates, expressing degrees of thought and expressions of information and descriptions of events, plotted
along the XY quadrant of a multi-variable function.
Oh, and thanks, Trigonometry.
One look at that chart, and you know, here comes trouble.
This week, I will simply add to our roster of linguistic cheat codes, the ones that slip by so easily amidst the booming buzzing noise of daily life, permeating our consciousness and sub-consciousness. These are the programmed phrases, playing on Repeat, leading future generations to a Never Never Land of snowflake nirvana, where accuracy in reporting is sacrificed at the Altar of the Unthinking, and zombie-like trance of shit posts, dumb tweets, cowardly commentary, and unbeareable hypocrisy. This is the final highlight reel of well-used weasel words that boomers should find particularly irritating, if not outright malevolent.
OK, Boomers.
"Long story short." -- [translation: "Forget
the details."] Making a long story short is a great time saver, and it
is also a way to hide the devil, who as we know hides in details. Or was it god who hides in the details? Oh well, long story
short, watch out if someone is communicating to you, yet finds they
really don't have the time to share important or unimportant details of
the narrative. Real, lasting content is in fact comprised of long
stories. They are called epics. Be epic.
"Thoughts and prayers." -- [translation: "I'm online and I really am a good person."] This phrase has become recognized as the epitome, and early expression of "virtue signaling." So prevalent in the world of online social media, "thoughts and prayers" is a sad by-product of our digitally induced shallowness, whose insincerity is soon to be surpassed by the currency devaluation of the phrase "Thank you for your service."
"Social Justice" -- [actual meaning: "collective retribution"] Justice is experienced on an individual level. The concept of "Social" Justice is mob justice, a shakedown, and a money-grabbing ruse for the race-baiter industry. It is one the biggest frauds out there, and an insult to the proposition that we are judged not by the color of our skin, but by the content of our character. If you are a "social justice warrior," leave me out of the guilt-tripping 21st Century revenge fantasy against my counttry. YOU are the real racists. Period. Dot. Fin.
"Follow the Science" -- [actual meaning: "It is immoral to disagree with me."] We decoded this one in a previous post. The realm of science is the least capable discipline to determine social policy. It is the least capable to form precepts to guide benevolent human conduct. "Follow the Science" is the reason we needed the Nuremberg Code. In fact, the classical origin of being "scientific," means being a skeptic, not a sheep.
"Trope" -- [???] I am seeing the increased usage of the word "trope" as a shiny debate tool growing in popularity among the internet
generation. A trope was a figure of speech, a metaphor, when the writer employs a word that is used in a non-literal manner, e.g., through irony, hyperbole, liltote (opposite of hyperbole), metonymy, or synecdoche. It is particularly fascinating as, perhaps, the word "trope" is not so much a linguistic cheat, as much as it is a definitional error, and its rise in usage (to dismiss potentially valid propostions before examining the proposition) supports my favorite trope generator: Wittgensteinian analytical philosophy. Put simply, he says that regarding language, Usage trumps Definitions, and not only that, Usage creates Meaning. Humans play Language Games. As I have seen it, some folks think an idea can discredited by calling it mere "trope." Actually, when someone says, "Oh, that's just a trope," they probably intended to dismiss your idea as cliché, and that could be a valid point. But by no means should a concept (or policy preference, for that matter) be dismissed merely because it was expressed creatively. Enough on the difference between "trope" and "cliché." I rant.
In closing, as an homage to being a North Carolinian for 28 years, here is one of my favorite linguistic decodes, courtesy of comedian Jon Reep. If you have lived in the South, you already know this.
Part One of this series adds context to my deep concern about what I call "linguistic cheat codes."
Picking up where we left off, I present to you my Top 5 language cheats as part of a new drinking game. How many cheats can you catch while listening and watching the globalist spin doctors and sociopathic corporate lawyers battle for control over our hearts and minds?
Listen for these:
1. "Honestly," --- [translation: "I'm lying."] This cheat word slips by listeners so often, and so subliminally that, honestly, speakers will drop it when they are making an especially weak and invalid point. Honestly, if you hear it, just know the speaker is scraping for words to convince you of something, but unfortunately, the absence of merit in their argument and speaker's lack of veracity suggests they are not being forthright. They know you are not buying what they are selling, and (honestly) you shouldn't buy it.
2. "The American people" -- [translation: "my sponsors and contributors"] This cheat code is particularly loathsome. Alarm bells should go off in your mind -- letting you know that before you is speaking a pitiful politician, on full display, confidently engorged, spewing tripe. The level of arrogance and condescension required for a speaker who deigns to know the policy preferences of a heterogenous nation like "the American people" is staggering. They use the phrase -- "the American people." When you break the code, you know that they really mean -- "all those suckers who give me money."
3. "At the end of the day." -- [translation: "stop thinking and obey."] "At the end of the day" is a time warp code. It suggests you do not have the time or the mental capacity to fully consider the speaker's point, thus your independent critical thoughts must be put aside . . . because . . . it is the end of the day. The speaker is suggesting you have no further alternatives; therefore, you must accept the argument, i.e., your time for deliberation has expired. Using the phrase "at the end of the day" is intellectually lazy, an appeal to convenience, and at the end of the day, just another linguistic cheat code.
4. That being said," -- [translation: what I just said is irrelevant] When you hear this phrase, the speaker has just negated every preceding statement. "That being said," means the speaker is ready to make a point directly contradictory to "that being said," and now they are making their actual point. Everything before the phrase "that being said," is an effort to lull your critical thinking skills to sleep. The validity, the merit, even the truth, of the opposing point, "being said," is now rendered meaningless. "That being said," when used properly, should emphasize the strength of the point to follow, which in this case is that corporate and mainstream messaging is likely a form of deception on demand.
Finally, we have the weasel word that has become one of the most prevalent in recent times:
5. "Misinformation." [translation: "LYING"] Rather than address the merits of an opponent's reason or assess the evidence presented, word weasels and spin doctors dismiss it as misinformation. Misinformation is close cousin of "conspiracy theory," in that it attacks the veracity of the opposition arguments. These are Langley-level cheat codes because it deflects critical thought from the consideration that persons making the accusations are themselves hiding the truth. It's spooky. Rather than making a direct accusation (i.e, "you are lying!"), and allowing a detached listener to determine for themselves who carries more credibility, word weasels call it "misinformation." It softens the accusation, making seem as if you are gently correcting. Nice touch, however, adults say what they mean, and what they really mean is "lying."
There you have it. Those my Top 5 cheat codes for talking heads.
Come on, Barbie! Let's go party!
I dare you to play this new drinking game, with or without friends. The Next time you are plopped in front the TV watching or streaming some representational eggheads bleating propaganda, have a slug every time you hear those cheating word weasels use one of these codes. I dare you.
From the bimbos at Fox News to your favorite podcaster, to your favorite echo chamber, and even your best friend, whatever your information source . . . everyone is doing it!
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 Idid notquit"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.
OK, Boomer, do you remember this MTV hit by the band Crowded House?
That song, "Don't Dream It's Over," used the same words as those in the title of this post. Because we are speaking and writing in English, spacing and punctuation rules are less strict than many other languages. Unless we practice writing in Far Eastern or Cyrillic characters, we don't have to bother much with diacritical marks, where, for example, the French circonflexe (the little hat) means the difference between jeune (young) and jeûne (fast). More on foreign tongues later. For now, let's just agree there's a place in the world for old and slow.
One dot, one period, one space bar, one programmer's keystroke, and POOF!, meaning changes. A glitch occurs in the matrix, and hordes of weasels begin to libel and slander your character. What's worse is they openly criticize your hair color and tan lines.
Meaning is interpreted through a reader's preconceptions. So if a single dendrite misfires in the synapse between pen and paper, between thought and expression, the message is too often received bereft of the writer's intended meaning -- a variant of the writer's idea, if you will. One fat finger fault can lead to a divine comedy of misunderstanding. As the eminent writers Page & Plant once put it:
"Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiven."
Other times, fortunately, the reader or listener indeed "gets it."
And the messenger lives.
The original song meaning, as I heard it, was one of uplifting encouragement, a hopeful message in the face of numerous and divisive intrusions. The artist is telling you in so many words, "Don't give up. Keep on going, even when you are surrounded byidiots trying to separate you from the bonding spirit of family and friends. Despite forces rending your true soul from your original self, despite day to day annoyances like fixing the hole in the wall, towing your car, rumors of war and waste, despite all that, they won't win. The world comes in, like a deluge to build a wall between us, but they won't win.
There is Freedom within, there is Freedom without.
Play.
But then --- one dot and one space --- and the message changes. Punctuation turns something once promising and hopeful into a sad anthem of disillusion and finality. We boomers, we've been there and done that.
IT'S OVER.
Don't dream those dreams . . . of long-haired hippies . . . of chimeric Lennonist utopias.
Get back.
To life.
Get back.
To what is real.
Put simply folks, in order for us boomers to mature gracefully, we must own our generational bias. Step up to your chronological demographic. Challenge the invaders, embrace your misanthropy, your latent liberal racism, your depleted sexism, and hilarious homophobia. Recognize those so-called social injustices of which you have been accused wrongfully, and sometimes, accurately. Pay them no heed. And if you are game, prepare yourself for an occasional slice of humble pie.
Same goes for the kids out there. Romantic ideals are dead.
Don't dream. It's over.
Let Truth be your Master, not pixelated myths from the Reagan era. The Eisenhower era may be okay. Either way, past presidents become dead presidents, but your Time is always your Money. Isaiah 11:6
EVERYONE DISCRIMINATES. (but not everyone is prejudiced).
To discriminateis to select. Discrimination has been vilified, though merely an expression of intent.
Prejudice OTOH assumes facts not in evidence. It's an infantile state of mind, a sort an inverse Dunning-Kruger situation, where a person jumps to conclusions with faulty logic or false facts. Or narcisstic hubris. (Hello, CNN)
Well, the music break is done.
It's been so long since I'd seen the ocean, I thought I should come to California. As is so often the case, the best expression about my trip borrows from well-known lyrics.
Watch the video (3:58) and see. We can ALL see through the corporate bullshit -- it's over.
