Semantics Tactics

semantics |səˈmantiks|

pluralnoun [ usu. treated as sing. ]

the meaning of a word, phrase, sentence, or text: such quibbling over semantics may seem petty stuff.

It’s interesting to note that the terms ‘liberalism’ and ‘conservatism’ have been redefined more than once in the course of American political history. While it’s true that Kirk put his brand on the concept of conservatism, because he was a respected icon in his time, I see the whole topic as an issue of evolving semantics.

My parents were both registered democrats because, in their day, ‘democrat’ stood for individual rights and the ‘party of the people’.  Over time, as often happens, this has morphed and the ideology along with it. Few people know that during the American Civil War, it was the ‘republicans’ that stood for ending slavery. So all this is to say, words, in human language, are easily commandeered to mean different, if not opposite things, while the masses still cling to the meaning they were taught and do not see that the new meaning has swept them out to sea with the changing tide. It’s the oldest trick in Satan’s playbook and a strategy that seems to work every time. 

What really matters is not how words and labels in modern language are manipulated but something more subtle at play that most are not paying attention to. This is where I perceive that human nature factors in more significantly. Words come and go, and their meanings change along the way, but human nature never changes. How many words are nearly forbidden now because they have been hi-jacked by the new Sensibilities Culture? The old childhood chant ‘sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me’ has been officially retired as useless nowadays. If your feelings are hurt, you now have an entire ideology to defend you and pound the offender into submission for having misspoken.

For the past several years I have been involved in a profoundly interesting project requiring deep research into what Dr. Robert Hare calls the ‘disturbing world of the psychopaths among us’ in his book, Without Conscience. What I have learned about psychopathy in general and Anti-Social Personality Disorder in particular has led me to a startling conclusion: there are many ways to categorize the human condition but the simplest is that all humans fall into one of three broad categories, those who wish to dominate others, those who do not mind being dominated and actually prefer it, and those who wish to be neither a dominator or dominated. Psychopaths easily fall into the first category and often rise to power in one way or another over the masses, those who fall into the second group, who do not wish to think for themselves and are easily duped and quickly willing to trade individual freedom for security. This is easily accomplished with good sounding words, tried and true rhetoric. 

The last, third group, comprised of the smallest number, are those who have no desire to tell anyone else what to do or how to be, and resent those from the first category who attempt to impose their will on everyone else. 

This is significant because it is from these three categories that humans choose how to live and how they align themselves in every facet of life including relationships, religion and politics.  The first group easily coaxes the second group into a state I refer to as Group Think. The third group is not so easily corralled and therefore is always a thorn in the side of the first group but because the third group is not bent toward dominating or forcing anyone else to see things the way they do, they have little influence over the masses in the second group and often are ill-equipped to stand up to the first group.

Conclusion: the terms ‘liberal’ and ‘conservative’ are just names of hats that the first group wear interchangeably as they wrestle with each other for power over the other two groups. 

Within the ranks of the third group there are those who know by wisdom gained from studying history that the bold tactics of the first group always help them win some battles upfront, but in the end it is the emptiness, the immorality and the godlessness of those tactics that cause the inevitable implosion. Time after time history repeats itself.  

Is it possible we have reached the final go round and those in the third group should just simply wait quietly for those in the first group to destroy themselves?

Courage is just fear that has said its prayers.

For Christ,

Meema

God's redemptive providence is always at work, even through the most diabolical schemes and actions.... So, take heart, my friend. God is in full control. Nothing is happening on earth that brings a surprise to heaven. Nothing is outside the scope of His divine radar screen as He guides us safely home. Things that seem altogether confusing, without reason, unfair, even wrong, do indeed fit into the Father's providential plan.  1 Timothy 1:17 Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. ~ Charles Swindoll-Bedside Blessings

Dad

I think about my dad on Father’s Day. He died in 1979. For most of his life, he worked six days a week, ten hours a day, selling men’s shoes. When I was a child, in Houston, he rode a bus to town and home again, leaving the family car for my mother to use. On Sundays, his only day off, he took us to church in the morning, then, after lunch, spent the early afternoon cutting the thick St. Augustine grass with a hand push mower. He finished the job by meticulously, laboriously, edging with a sharpened shovel. Next, he washed and waxed the car, by hand. That done, he made repairs to our house or worked on an ongoing project, like building a brick barbecue pit. He always whistled as he worked, happy to be outside in the sun and fresh air. He claimed it was detoxifying to work up a sweat. I followed him around like a pesky puppy asking questions he always had time to answer. He taught me how to soap a screw so it would slip into dense wood like it was butter. He taught me how to drive a nail, straight and true. There is a tall Texas pine tree in the back yard of my old childhood home forever fortified with pounds of ten penny nails.

When he had completed his tasks, he took a shower, made himself a Tom Collins hi-ball and sat down to enjoy a late afternoon baseball game on TV. His pleasure and sense of self-satisfaction was palpable. Sometimes, at our begging, he would forego the game and take us to Stewart beach, an hour away in Galveston, for a romp in the salty Gulf breakers. Returning home, after dark, sand wedged between our toes and plastered miserably in our swimsuits, we’d all fall out of the car in a mad competitive dash for the one bathroom, leaving him behind to clean up. I have no memories of him complaining about anything, except maybe never being able to find his nails and screws. 

He wasn’t an overtly religious man, but he taught me the Lord’s Prayer. He wasn’t an educated man, but he loved numbers and he insisted that I learn my multiplication tables by heart, and practiced with me after dinner every night until I knew them upside down and backwards. It was his gentle patience and ability to communicate with me within the framework of my learning zone, that made it possible for me to finally understand the complex mysteries of fractions. This was a teaching skill my college-educated fourth grade teacher did not own. Until recently, I have never thought of these memories in the context of time expended. But now I wonder, when did he have time to do all these things? 

There is a lot of discussion, nowadays, about good parenting and what skills, instinctual or acquired, define a good parent. The emphasis primarily centering on time spent with children. Mothers, typically, have always understood the importance of spending time with children and have filled that need naturally. But now modern attitude requires fathers to participate more in the daily care and nurturing of their offspring in an advancing egalitarian effort to “include dad” in the raising of kids. This is good, I agree. Diapering and feeding and bathing does foster a certain amount of bonding. But what about the fundamental significance of good influence? What about the quiet strength and integrity fathers could impart to their children by simply being solid role models? And what makes a good role model? Is it honesty? Is it a strong work ethic? Is it a visible faith in God? All of the above? Yes. But also, I believe it is a genuine interest in, and willingness to meet, the needs of his child, over and above his own needs, beyond his own agendas, physically, emotionally and spiritually. 

If I had to declare who had been my primary care giver, I would have to say it was my mother. If parenting hours determine this and could be charted, I’m sure her time invested in me far exceeded that of my dad’s. However, there is no denying the dynamic influences of my father are forever entrenched in me. You see, ultimately, it wasn’t how much time he had to spend but how he spent it that molded me. And even more importantly, it wasn’t as much about time spent, as it was his forthright example that forged me. Frankly, I doubt he ever diapered me. I don’t recall him doing any maintenance on me at all, not even kissing a boo-boo. But by virtue of his being a selfless, caring man, willing to listen and share, he was a good... no...he was a great father.

How could he have been more than that?

For Christ,

Meema

 (Hebrews 12:9) Furthermore, we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?

Point of No Return

For sometime now I have heard, “get it or don’t” and I have interpreted that to mean the door is closing. Clearly the few, otherwise known as the Remnant, understand that a great divide has opened up and those with eyes to see and ears to hear are on high alert. Now I understand how Jeremiah felt. I have reached the place where I feel like weeping but I’m all wept out. Is this that moment that always comes known as the point of no return?

Jeremiah was dubbed the “weeping prophet”.  He could see God’s coming judgment and warned the people repeatedly that they must  repent from their sins, or God would punish them severely.  

(Jeremiah 9:1) Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!  (9:2) Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging-place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.  

The sins of Israel in Jeremiah’s day sound like an indictment of our time.

(9:3) And they bend their tongue, [as it were] their bow, for falsehood; and they are grown strong in the land, but not for truth: for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith Jehovah.  (9:4) Take ye heed every one of his neighbor, and trust ye not in any brother; for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will go about with slanders.  (9:5) And they will deceive every one his neighbor, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they weary themselves to commit iniquity.  (9:6) Thy habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, saith Jehovah.  

Jeremiah knew no matter what he said, or warned or how much he wept, they would not listen and would not see and therefore would suffer greatly for their refusal to repent from their sins.

(9:7) Therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts, Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how [else] should I do, because of the daughter of my people?  (9:8) Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaketh deceit: one speaketh peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart he layeth wait for him.  (9:9) Shall I not visit them for these things? saith Jehovah; shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?  

And so Jeremiah wept as he continued to warn them. Sometimes there is nothing left to do but weep when you speak truth but truth cannot be heard because it is not palatable; because it’s not fun or uplifting. Sometimes truth is hard and requires a sacrifice, the giving up of pleasant things–a condition that most are not willing to accept.  And so Jeremiah wept. What else was left for him to do?

(9:10) For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the pastures of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none passeth through; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the birds of the heavens and the beasts are fled, they are gone.  

On any journey there is a point of no return where the destiny is closer than the first step. It is a sobering moment to realize there is no turning back, no matter how difficult the outcome portends. What must be must be.

(9:11) And I will make Jerusalem heaps, a dwelling-place of jackals; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.  (9:12) Who is the wise man, that may understand this? and [who is] he to whom the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken, that he may declare it? wherefore is the land perished and burned up like a wilderness, so that none passeth through?  (9:13) And Jehovah saith, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein,  

Perhaps Jeremiah wept because he could see the point of no return even as he warned the people so he knew there would be no repentance, no revival, no great awakening. Jeremiah knew the outcome was as inevitable as it was devastating.

(9:14) but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart, and after the Baalim, which their fathers taught them;  (9:15) therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.  (9:16) I will scatter them also among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them.  

But history recounts that the Israelites refused to hear the warning of Jeremiah the prophet, and in the end they were taken as slaves again to Babylon. Perhaps they too wept then. Did they take Jeremiah’s warnings to heart, after the fact, even though too late? Did they understand why they were being punished or did they feel abandoned by God? Did they shake their fists at Heaven and declare there could not be a God who would allow such a hard thing to happen to them? 

One thing is for sure, because it is always the case, they did not know when they had reached the point of no return, when it was too late to change the outcome. They were too busy eating drinking and making merry so they missed the sign. 

For Christ,

Meema