Hijacking
the Language
The
path to higher taxes and socialism begins by
co-opting the meaning of words. Look how politicians
today equate the word "invest" with higher
government spending.
The
late Richard Weaver, one of America’s leading
thinkers, is remembered principally for two
observations. One is that ideas have consequences.
The other is that the corruption of a people begins
with their corruption of language.
In
a previous column ("People's
Republic of Virginia," June 7, 2004) I
argued that the idea of the need for a constantly
expanding role for government to match the rising
complexity of our society was the stated premise for
the massive tax increase approved at the recent
special session. That idea will have profound and
inevitable consequences if it isn’t displaced by
another, competing idea. One obvious consequence is
an ever-rising level of taxation.
Only
anarchists believe that all taxes are evil. Those
who are not will readily acknowledge that taxes are
justified to pay for certain essential governmental
functions. What is “essential” has always
divided the non-anarchists.
For
more than a century, there were essentially two
camps: the socialists (or communists) and the
capitalists. In recent years, a new grouping —
advocates of a Third Way — has appeared.
Former
President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister
Tony Blair are the most prominent examples of Third
Way politicians. They insist that there is a
coherent theory of governance somewhere between the
extremes of capitalism and socialism.
Clinton,
who must have been a linguist in a previous life,
used words like weapons. In a remarkable account of
an intensive revamping of his 1992 presidential
campaign just before the Democratic National
Convention, Newsweek magazine described a
technique used by Clinton that enabled him to watch
the emotional response to his speech registered by a
focus group as Clinton was speaking. He found
that words such as “work” and “invest” drew
a strong, positive reaction.
Not
surprisingly, Clinton then sprinkled those words
throughout his campaign speeches and ads. He
continued to invoke those terms over the course of
his administration.
While
the word “socialism” evokes a negative emotional
response among most Americans, the word
“investment” has the opposite effect. Collective
ownership is the hallmark of a socialist system, but
Third Way politicians try to disguise their
preference for government over private control and
ownership by using the language of capitalism.
Until
Third Way politicians began corrupting the word
“invest,” it never included government welfare
spending. Webster’s Dictionary defined the
word to mean “to put money into business, real
estate, stocks, bonds, etc., for the purpose of
obtaining an income or profit.”
Gov.
Mark R. Warner is another Third Way politician.
He, too, has found the power in the word
“invest” and uses it routinely to sell his
program of tax increases and expanded government.
In
the absence of an aggressive response to Warner’s
language corruption from conservatives, his tactic
is working. The imagery of students in new public
university facilities, preparing themselves for the
challenges of the 21st century is surely as
galvanizing and beguiling as the vision of a new
Communist order in the Soviet Union was almost a
century ago.
The
truth is that, whether the vision of collective
solutions is constructed in straightforward
socialist language or the corrupted language of the
Third Way, this preference for ever-expanding
government doesn’t work or, if it does, it is
incompatible with personal liberty.
If
conservatives want to stop the drift toward more and
more government, they had better begin to engage
their opponents with a frontal assault. They would
be well-advised to challenge the idea that expanded
government programs will solve our daunting social
problems.
First,
they must end the corruption of language.
--
June 7, 2004
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