Recently I was thinking of a 1969 Algerian-French movie called โZ.โ It was all the rage among the hippies of the early 1970s โ I know this to be true because I was one.
โZโ takes place in Greece and tells the story of the assassination of a left-wing politician, by government goons. The military dictatorship government bans a whole host of things including the letter Z, meaning โhe lives,โ which was a protest slogan.
We all agreed back then that it was terrible for government to engage in thought control by controlling language. We were correct in our thinking โ a lucid moment compared to other thinking in which we indulged.
When we think, our thoughts are in the form of words, so authorities must never be permitted to outlaw or edit our thinking by redefining or outlawing our words.
Today it is not primarily the government that is acting in that capacity, though with colleges restricting speech outside designated free speech zones, we are well on our way. The University of Arizona has neither free speech zones, nor onerous rules, but according to FIRE, an individual rights watchdog group focusing on college campuses, it is not above misapplying rules.
In 2010, FIRE helped a pro-life student club, Students for Life (SFL) get official recognition which meant it would have access to school facilities just like Students for Justice in Palestine, Students Organized for Animal Rights, and Young Democrats. They were told that the requirement that voting members must hold the same beliefs as those for which the club was created was unnecessary and discriminatory. When FIRE pointed out that that would be a surprise to the other clubs, the school caved.
Most of todayโs attempts at thought control are subtle, usually nongovernmental, and definitely political. Consider the misuse of the word โgender.โ It is a grammatical term that relates to certain aspects of nouns. It is an abstract concept. At some point, it replaced the word โsexโ in the lexicon. Alas, people do not have a gender. Words have a gender, people have a sex.
Pima Community College recently held a daylong โEthnic, Gender, and Transborder Studies Summit.โ I think they meant โsexโ or maybe they are actually holding grammar classes.
It may seem inconsequential, but think about how we do a disservice to those of us who struggle with sex identity decisions. These choices involve much more than a grammatical abstraction. They involve the myriad issues relating to sex including the body, mind and heart. Words mean things.
โImmigrantโ has also seen some manipulation. In the City of Tucsonโs Resolution #22699 available on the cityโs website, you will find that โmembers of the immigrant community and all members of our community may be experiencing anxiety and fear relating to potential changes in federal immigration laws.โ Here we see โimmigrantโ used with no differentiation between legal and illegal.
Most immigrants are legal and I bet they are not worried in the least.
Slightly under half of the immigrant population are naturalized citizens, and a great many are aliens legally residing here, and virtually no one considers them a problem. They are not deportable. So why the hysteria?
Here is a sin of omission: โTPD expressly recognizes that mere unauthorized presence in the United States is not a criminal offense, and enforcement of civil immigration violations โฆโ
That is true, but not the whole truth. Many have crossed the border illegally which is a criminal misdemeanor, and a felony if repeated after deportation (people who overstay visas are examples of entering legally but present illegally).
As a free people, we must respect those who speak honestly and forthrightly and be suspect of those who would torture the language, and otherwise misrepresent facts. Words are thoughts; protect them.
