March 16, 2014
Calling a Spade a 'Garden Implement' Doesn't Make it a HoeBy Clarice FeldmanEarly on in the Genesis chapter of the Bible much is made of Adam giving names to all living creatures. Like everything about the Bible, the meaning of this event is subject to many interpretations, the most often given is that it signals man’s dominion over the other creatures of the earth.
I don’t dispute that reading, but to me, the naming description signifies that there can be no real communication among people unless the names we use mean the same thing to all of us. A spade certainly is a garden implement, but if you are in the gardening shed and I need a spade, I’d better ask you for one, or you might bring out a hoe, useless for my work.
In ways large and small, we are increasingly skittish about calling things by their right names. Take “multiculturalism” for example. As my online friend Harry Lewis observes:
Multiculturalism, which exalts race and ethnicity over middle class values, is proto-fascist. The centerpiece of fascism is race hatred and race war. The centerpiece of communism is class hatred and class warfare. That's how you tell the two apart. Time to start calling the race hustlers proto-fascists, which is what they are.
Europe may have fallen into this trap already but it is starting to make moves to get out of it. France has banned face veils that disguise the wearers’ identities, and the Netherlands is requiring applicants for citizenship to learn Dutch and Dutch customs.
Creating enclaves of immigrants with no desire or incentive to assimilate means the death of the modern democratic state, which depends on shared values like respect for secular law and a common official language.
In the U.S. to question the philosophical and political consequences of multiculturalism is to open up oneself to baseless charges of racism. Or ethnic animus.
Toughen up. It’s not racist nor ethnic hatred and it’s foolish to allow yourself to be silenced by this trite political shame and silence ploy.
The language and civics portions of our immigration exams are basic and slender enough, but the notion of legalizing millions of illegal immigrants who will not even have to pass these before they vote is a recipe for disaster. Demagogic politicians aided by one-sided ethnic media make certain an increase in ethnic tensions and a drift from the informed electorate without which our truly multi-racial and multi-ethnic Republic must fall. Shrewd politicos understand this. Hillary Clinton’s one-sided deal with Spanish language behemoth media Univision, shows how easy it is to turn foreign-language media into cheerleaders for one side when you have millions of voters who do not get more than one version of events because they do not speak our language:
Imagine if a major television network entered into a partnership with a presidential nominee, and promoted that candidate across their media platforms. Just think of the outrage and charges of bias that would ricochet through the press.
Or maybe not.
Univision, the country's top Spanish-language network, has entered into a multiyear deal with Hillary Clinton to promote the health, education and well-being of young children the problem here is that a major broadcaster is getting awfully close to a presumptive nominee for president. A second problem is that many in the press are largely ignoring this relationship. Marc Caputo, a political reporter for the Miami Herald, wrote about the Univision/Clinton ties, and several conservative media outlets picked up his column. But other than that, this has been a non-story -- which is a shame.
The multiculturalism scam is but one aspect of the use of language to hide meaning and to foreclose debate.
The ease with which the left, in effect, declares topics beyond debate by banning words altogether was highlighted this week when it turned out the multi-media effort to suggest that “bossy” was a “sexist” term to denigrate women was originated by Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer, Sheryl Sandberg, a major Hillary donor and supporter. “Make no mistake, there is always a deeper agenda whenever a seemingly innocent campaign pops up overnight.”
Worldwide, the notion of terrorism is seemingly so beyond the Pale that even when multiple signs exist to suggest it is a plausible explanation, government authorities and the press rush in before much is known to deny that it is even a possibility. To them, alien abduction seems more likely than hijacking or terrorism and a random shooting at our soldiers with the murderer shouting Allahu Akbar implies nothing about his motivation.
After a week of red herrings about the disappearance of Flight 370, the Malaysian authorities finally conceded that the plane was likely the victim of a criminal act, probably a hijacking. Where it is now, we don’t know -- China points us in one direction, the U.S. in another. Are the two simply looking at different information, trying to cover all bases, or is China for whatever reason trying to divert the world’s attention from the facts, as the Malaysian government seems to have done? The latest word on Saturday was that the plane landed somewhere in Central Asia:
At a press conference today in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak confirmed what many, including Slate, had already inferred about the fate of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370: that it had not succumbed to an accident but instead been diverted as a result of “deliberate action by someone on the plane.” Further information release by the Malaysian government indicated that the plane ended its flight in a restive area of Central Asia.
Like Adam, let’s start naming things so we all can understand each other and take dominion over our political fortunes.. Let’s start calling a spade a spade; racial and ethnic Balkanization, proto-fascism, criminal terroristic conduct, terrorism; and officious people of any gender bossy.
http://americanthinker.com/2014/03/calling_a_spade_a_garden_implement_doesnt_make_it_a_hoe.html
