When Words Are Weapons

[HKHaugan]

When Words Are Weapons      

       For instance, ‘systemic’ is a word with an ulterior motive.  Put the word systemic in front of something and you have an invisibly invented strawman that can’t be proven or disproven.  It is the latest jargon used to incite restlessness and distrust.  Here’s the kicker.  It’s used to accuse, fuse, ruse and re-use, not to correct but infect, to convict. addict and conflict groups of people based on their appearance.  How shallow.  How transparent.  How deceitful.  Systemic is a word that can destroy, disunite and disrupt any form of unity by making a visible group the enemy.  Create an invisible enemy and blame a visible group.  Judge by appearance.  Well, let’s get to the real truth behind words here. 

       “Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (11 May 1752 – 22 January 1840) was a German physician, naturalist, physiologist, and anthropologist. He was one of the first to explore the study of the human being as an aspect of natural history. His teachings in comparative anatomy were applied to his classification of human races, of which he claimed there were five, Caucasian, Mongolian, Malayan, Ethiopian, and American (Wikipedia article, refs. included).” 

       So, it was in 1775, when Blumenbach presented his thesis, he was the first to use the word ‘race (Ger. rasse)’ to describe human beings.  So, what we know as race, racist, racial and racism were not used as concepts in human thought until 1775.  How many other words are really devised by imperfect humans like sexism and feminism, which were invented in this present century?  How many other words are devised to be emotional attack words, identity words that label others as bad?  Even the American Anthropological Association comprising most academics whose expertise is the study of human culture and behavior, has made a statement to the effect that there is no such a thing as race, just cultural differences.  External appearances may be different but internal humanity is the same world over.  Here’s what the distinguished American Anthropological Association has to say about race:

       “At the end of the 20th century, we now understand that human cultural behavior is learned, conditioned into infants beginning at birth, and always subject to modification. No human is born with a built-in culture or language. Our temperaments, dispositions, and personalities, regardless of genetic propensities, are developed within sets of meanings and values that we call "culture." Studies of infant and early childhood learning and behavior attest to the reality of our cultures in forming who we are.”

       “It is a basic tenet of anthropological knowledge that all normal human beings have the capacity to learn any cultural behavior. The American experience with immigrants from hundreds of different language and cultural backgrounds who have acquired some version of American culture traits and behavior is the clearest evidence of this fact. Moreover, people of all physical variations have learned different cultural behaviors and continue to do so as modern transportation moves millions of immigrants around the world.”

       “How people have been accepted and treated within the context of a given society or culture has a direct impact on how they perform in that society. The "racial" worldview was invented [my underline] to assign some groups to perpetual low status, while others were permitted access to privilege, power, and wealth. The tragedy in the United States has been that the policies and practices stemming from this worldview succeeded all too well in constructing unequal populations among Europeans, Native Americans, and peoples of African descent. Given what we know about the capacity of normal humans to achieve and function within any culture, we conclude that present-day inequalities between so-called "racial" groups are not consequences of their biological inheritance but products of historical and contemporary social, economic, educational, and political circumstances (AAA 1998 Statement).”

       ‘Systemic’ is more subtle.  It denies the basic idea that all people are images of God, equal, distinctly dignified and deserving respect.  The result is social paranoia; the pitting of everyone against each other.  Suspicion rides in on the horse of seething hostility creating visions of people as things to be shunned, attacked and vilified.  Look at what happens when you put ‘systemic’ in front of the following: sexism (each gender is born to hate its opposite), feminism (men are born distrustful), masculinism (men by nature hate women), racism (each skin color hates the other), classism (upper/lower classes are born that way), name it and they’ve inherited it.  The devil at work.  Suspicion, distrust and their alienation are fueled by the unseen spirit of fear inciting them.  The American Revolution was a statement about royal blood versus the blood of commoners recognizing in its founding documents that all men are created equal.

       Let’s put systemic in its rightful place.  There is one systemic factor in the human condition that rides in on the coattails of pride and self-elevation.  It’s the spiritual systemic called sin.  We were born with it (Ps.51:5).  Sin is the systemic condition in every human heart that feeds on fear of aloneness and its meaninglessness.  The sin filled heart fears lack of personal recognition, fear of not being in control, fear of faith, employing self-righteous hypocrisy and judgmentalism.  Having neither belief nor faith in God, the sinful heart makes judgments based on its assumption of self-perfection.  Again, judging by appearance, cultural background and economic standards, that’s what is systemic.  Sin, everyone suffers from it. 

       People who use the word systemic as a social malady are guilty of betraying humanity.  They reveal their ignorance in regard to their own human nature.  They refuse to accept their basic fallen nature, the nature that causes us to judge, make mistakes and look for excuses and blame others for what we do and are.  Without God we operate from a false sense of perfection.  Therefore, we invent attack categories that don’t really exist, imaginary causes with empty emotionalism.  Attack the religious, the political, the corporate structures, and on and on.  It’s battling with the wind.  Sin is the real issue, the battle within for which there is only one answer and that is the love of God which Jesus brings to the heart willing to accept it.

       Sin is the spiritual systemic reality behind all the divisiveness that exists.  It is the only cause of evil and its rioting mobs.  There are no blacks, whites, Latinos, Asians, Jews, males or females---only images of God dressed in human bodies with unique coloration and shapes.  How dare anyone say there is a systemic internal difference defined by appearance?  The human heart is in every human body and every human body contains the image of God.  There you have it.  If sin is the primary motivation behind human separation, then anything that proceeds from sin is systemic, the proper use of the word.  Take aloneness, fear, pride, hate, revenge, lust, envy, jealousy, deception, frustration, depression, slander, arrogance, judgmentalism, superiority/inferiority.  All of these are common to every individual human heart.  Sin is the real systemic problem.   

       The real racist, the real bigot, the real biased and prejudiced ones are those who believe that there are races with different minds and hearts, different beings therefor different species.  They are the racists trying to force their personal systemic sinful wills on others.  It’s those whose sinful heart manufactures invisible themes and schemes to create division and disunity for personal satisfaction parading as right.  That’s always done at the expense of others who they victimize with their strategies of hate filled rhetoric and violent demonstrations.  There are only two choices human beings have.  They will either choose to be self-centered and judgmental in their hearts or they will be God centered and loving.

       The bottom line is this: if you believe there is such a thing as race, use the word race to describe others or call someone racist, you are, by definition, a racist.  Replace systemic with love. Therefore, the following song by Jackie De Shannon:

Think of your fellow man

Lend him a helping hand

Put a little love in your heart

You see it's getting late

Oh, please don't hesitate

Put a little love in your heart

And the world will be a better place

And the world will be a better place

For you and me

You just wait and see

Another day goes by

Still the children cry

Put a little love in your heart

If you want the world to know

We won't let hatred grow

Put a little love in your heart

And the world (And the world) will be a better place

All the world (And the world) will be a better place

For you (For you) and me (And me)

You just wait (Just wait) and see, wait and see

Take a good look around

And if you're looking down

Put a little love in your heart

I hope when you decide

Kindness will be your guide

Put a little love in your heart

And the world (And the world) will be a better place

And the world (And the world) will be a better place

For you (For you) and me (And me)

You just wait (Just wait) and see

People now, put a little love in your heart

Each and every day

Put a little love in your heart

There's no other way

Put a little love in your heart

It's up to you

Put a little love in your heart

Come on and

Put a little love in your heart

You've got to

Put a little love in your heart

 

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Jackie De Shannon / Jimmy Holiday / Randy Myers