Where have all the flowers gone?

[timza]

We are adrift in a sea of confusion and rancor caused by mistrust and ignorance.

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TOPICS: Education; Society
KEYWORDS: gaytorpee; language; vanity

[whitney69]

Every one of your examples is media presented and most are nothing more than gibberish designed to confuse you and lead you into thinking the chicken little syndrome. What you are identifying and supporting with that identification is their success in controlling you. Don’t buy into it.

wy69

[PghBaldy]

Beautiful song.

[Chickensoup]

So true

[aspasia]

Our communication skills have diminished over time

Actually, this thread is (perhaps) an example. My skills have diminished so much I fail to engage other posters in meaningful conversation. Overall, for FR posters it's easier be witty with an isolated statement.

As a result, I've found conversation with AI surprisingly more generative.

[reasonisfaith]

Misuse of language is significant. In fact, deception is the most fundamental misuse of language.

The primary cause of societal woes is intent. The intent of malicious individuals in positions of power. They are the communists.

But they were here even before the word communism was invented.

Their tool is the misuse of language. It is a secondary cause of societal woes.

[TexasGator]

“and you’ll discover John Locke did not tolerate atheists.”

Only he did.

“As for other practical opinions, though not absolutely free from all error, if they do not tend to establish domination over others or civil impunity to the Church in which they are taught, there can be no reason why they should not be tolerated”

[aspasia]

misuse

I can think of two off the bat.

-equivocation
-obsolence and eradication
- ?
- ?

[Tunehead54]

To answer your question we've got quite a few in our backyard forest.

These are Bromeliads which we carefully weed around them, fertilize them, water them and they only bloom maybe three times a year and look beautiful for maybe a week and a half.

A little humor there. They do it all by themselves.

If we just potted them we could probably go into a serious business - they even climb up trees!

The DEMs are always changing their names and labels but the message never changes.

George Bernard Shaw started things with the Fabian Society with "progressive" - that fell out of favor and then went with liberal" maybe because progressives were backing prohibition. ;-)

My general rule since they change labels regularly is if they use terms like "progress", progressive, forward, and now hitler, fascist, nazi, etc. they are easily identified and people to be avoided.

TH54 ;-)

[reasonisfaith]

The origin of all misuse is in our misuse of one another.

The problem is not linguistic. It’s moral.

We all have the flaw of misusing one another. But it is a flaw that has been instigated, cultivated and encouraged by those who are truly culpable.

[aspasia]

Well, yes. He did and he didn’t. Thanks. The point our understanding of Locke’s toleration is not some form of moral presentism.

[aspasia]

The problem is not linguistic. It’s moral.

It's both. We are homo sapiens and homo moralis at the same time.

[reasonisfaith]

“He did and he didn’t.”

This is a misuse of language. I don’t say this to be antagonistic, but only to speak the truth.

The Hegelian dialectic, by the way, is another cause of our society’s problems.

[aspasia]

But I'll yours. You could get quite a few subpoints under "amoral"

- equivocation
- obsolence and eradication
- amoral

[aspasia]

No problem. I don't mind exploring how to see this right.

Perhaps Aquinas prefigured Hegel?

[aspasia]

Hegelian dialectic

How about Socratic dialogue instead?

[reasonisfaith]

I must heartily disagree.

If we didn’t have people who are essentially monsters running the world, but we still had random misuse of language due to human ignorance, then our major problems would be gone.

[reasonisfaith]

The Hegelian dialectic is tied to ancient, non Christian religion.

The Hegelian dialectic is “thesis-antithesis-synthesis.”

It’s known in popular Internet chat as “problem-reaction-solution.”

[reasonisfaith]

The problem-reaction-solution strategy is a tool for control.

Used by those in power (those REALLY in power) to control everyone else.

But those in power are flawed in a unique way. This is why they are currently losing their grip on society.

One of their greatest flaws is they don’t recognize their mortal weakness.

[reasonisfaith]

So the problems of society are not truly in the misuse of language.

They are in the misuse of people.

[aspasia]

Disagree you may. I'd like to be convinced. Perhaps I should first try to understand your point. Our major problems are moral. So you want it on top of the list. So I'll put mine as sub-catagories. Can you add any?

Our misuse of language is moral problem achieved through

(a) equivocation
(b) forced obsolence or obliteration
(c) lies