Strong language: a "cult." Yet study shows -- and many have said -- the Republican Party has become largely a cult of personality surrounding OML. Now comes further proof by way of a new book purchase.
In When a Church Becomes a Cult, Anglican priest Stephen Wookey describes in clear terms how cults work. My use of this book here is not to lambast churches but rather to shame all cults. In chapter 5, Wookey describes how cults and their leaders use language. Speaking of cults he says:
Here we have the essence of OML's use of words. We are indeed in dangerous territory. If, as Wookey says, our culture is reliant on language -- and surely we are -- the loose and seriously inaccurate use of words at the highest level of the federal government has become a danger to the people, a clear and present danger. Examples can and have been given.
Thus, all due speed and effort must be used to call out this cultic use of language for what it is -- a means of manipulation and control. For when confronted with such verbiage, one is tempted to give up in simple exhaustion, proclaim to oneself, "What's the use," and then succumb to torpor and silent acceptance.
By now in this short essay it should be clear that the people of the United States are in grave danger of coming under the sway of a vast conspiracy of deceit. As I continue in the book, I hope to find suggestions of a way out of such a morass. When I do, you will be the first to know.
*pp. 90-91
In When a Church Becomes a Cult, Anglican priest Stephen Wookey describes in clear terms how cults work. My use of this book here is not to lambast churches but rather to shame all cults. In chapter 5, Wookey describes how cults and their leaders use language. Speaking of cults he says:
Words are used not to communicate truth, but to obscure and confuse so that you abandon your rational senses and simply receive an experience. Put another way, words have been rendered obsolete. This is, of course, incredibly dangerous. Words are the most basic and accurate means of communication that we have. We can communicate by body language, or picture, or music, to some degree. But they are inevitably flawed and can easily confuse....
Words, on the other hand, are designed to clarify, to explain as precisely as possible. If ever we want to make something clear, we have ultimately to use words....When we use words to confuse, or we use words loosely, we are no longer able to communicate in a meaningful sense.*
Here we have the essence of OML's use of words. We are indeed in dangerous territory. If, as Wookey says, our culture is reliant on language -- and surely we are -- the loose and seriously inaccurate use of words at the highest level of the federal government has become a danger to the people, a clear and present danger. Examples can and have been given.
Thus, all due speed and effort must be used to call out this cultic use of language for what it is -- a means of manipulation and control. For when confronted with such verbiage, one is tempted to give up in simple exhaustion, proclaim to oneself, "What's the use," and then succumb to torpor and silent acceptance.
By now in this short essay it should be clear that the people of the United States are in grave danger of coming under the sway of a vast conspiracy of deceit. As I continue in the book, I hope to find suggestions of a way out of such a morass. When I do, you will be the first to know.
*pp. 90-91
