Renaissance Redneck: Bandied about

Nati Harnik/The Associated Press
We are living in an electronic age where the media is often fast and loose with the truth concerning important and serious topics. We should all know that we must sift through the hyperbole and extremist views to achieve an understanding of what is true, usually by navigating to the middle of the information road.

Some of the worst offenses come in the form of mere words being bandied about in the form of slander to belittle a political opponent or just someone you do not agree with.

The term Nazi is quite often tossed into the milieu of character assassinations Unless the person in question has been involved with or in any way supports the decimation of human social groups, such as the indigent, the elderly, or certain races, they should not be described as a Nazi. Most folks probably are not aware that the term Nazi is a byname for the National Socialist German Workers Party.

Adolph Hitler became the Nazi Party leader in 1921 to help formulate the Nazi anti-big business, anti-bourgeois, and anti-capitalist beliefs. In an effort to balance Germany’s post-WWI economy, de Fuhrer and his Nazi cronies decided to rid the country of the “eaters,” folks who could not make a living due to physical or psychological problems, then gathered up and exterminated the “Gypsies,” who were viewed by the Aryans as being an inferior race, and went on to exterminate 6 million Jews. So unless your local or national politician has been an exterminator of fellow humans and has socialist leanings, he or she is probably not a Nazi.

Czar is another term that is overused and tossed about as lightly as a bureaucrat shuffles paperwork. The word czar is a form of the word Caesar, which refers to the Roman emperors of old. It denotes the stance of a tyrannical despot, who answers to no one, which is an un-American idea.

Back in 2009, the U.S. government had a total of 45 czars overseeing parts of our bureaucracy, prompting then Senator John McCain to state that we had produced more czars than the Romanovs of Russia. Since the early 1970s we have had drug czars, energy czars, and even a car czar, which although melodiously rings with assonance is not a term that should be used in a democracy.

Another derogatory term bandied about is the Anti-Christ, a Biblical name referring to a supernatural being that will be able to snap its fingers to create lightning, as in thunder and lightning. So unless the demonized despot can affect the weather while bebopping to their favorite soundtrack, they are probably not the Biblical figure trying to reign over the world in opposition to Christ.

The term miracle is overused in today’s society, often tossed to and fro to describe the great plays in sporting events or surprising outcomes in our everyday lives. Miracles only occur when the natural or scientific laws have been broken, achieving an end result due to divine intervention, which then could be described as being awesome. Awesome is another word that is an overused descriptor, being slung fast and loose to describe something that is beyond a person’s comprehension, usually due to the fact that the awestruck person merely has a constricted view of the world due to a lack of experience, as in the case of a child.

Apocalypse is another word that is regularly misused in that it actually means an unveiling or a revelation, as in the last book of the Bible. Most times when the word apocalypse is used, what is meant is Armageddon which also occurs in the book of Revelation to describe the final battle between the forces of good and evil at Megiddo, a plain located in Northern Israel.

Words that I would like to hear being used more often are forgiveness, harmony, and love. To achieve the first two ideals, a person must first love themselves, proving that they are worthy and thus achieving self esteem, love others, and love the Creator.

David Kittredge is a regular Lifestyles contributor to the Eagle Times. You can send comments to him via the editor at [email protected].