The power of the tongue

O my brethren, we cannot whisper anything here to the earth that the heavens are not going to hear. Our every word comes before the assembly of the angels of God. Hades receives our every evil word and retains it as a guarantee of our eternal death and Paradise receives every good word and retains it as a guarantee of our eternal life. Truly, does the Old Testament sage wisely speaks and promptly reminds us with the words that: "Death and life are in the power of the tongue."
St. Nikolaj (Velimirovic)

The well concealed menace

Serving the tyranny, the corruption and abuse of language becomes better known as propaganda. …the most perfect propaganda achieves just this: that the menace is not apparent but well concealed. Still, it must remain visible; it must remain recognizable. At the same time, those for whom the menace is intended must nevertheless be led and eased into believing (and this is the true art!) that by acquiescing to the intimidation, they really do the reasonable thing, perhaps even what they would have wanted to do anyway.
Josef Pieper

The guarantee of the word

Our every word comes before the assembly of the angels of God. Hades receives our every evil word and retains it as a guarantee of our eternal death and Paradise receives every good word and retains it as a guarantee of our eternal life. Truly, does the Old Testament sage wisely speaks and promptly reminds us with the words that: 'Death and life are in the power of the tongue.'
St. Nikolaj (Velimirovic)

Instruments of power

…sophisticated language, disconnected from the roots of truth, in fact pursues some ulterior motives, that is invariably turns into an instrument of power…
Josef Pieper

The Russians are coming

So this is probably my most personal revelation on this here blog, of course I'll include an apropos quote, however. I received today the wonderful news of my placement into the desired level at my summer Russian program which is third year Russian.

Carolus V, Emperor of Rome, was wont to say that the Hispanic tongue was seemly for converse with God, the French with friends, the German with enemies, the Italian with the feminine sex. Had he been versed in the Russian tongue, however, he would of a certainty have added to this that it is appropriate in converse with all of the above, inasmuch as he would have found in it the magnificence of the Hispanic tongue, the sprightliness of the French, the sturdiness of the German, the tendresse of the Italian and, over and above all that, the richness and the conciseness of powerful imagery, of the Greek and Latin tongues.
Mikhail Vassilievich Lomonosov

Those are some pretty powerful words there junior

De-gendrifying Lutherans

Instructions begins with the proper use of speech, and syllables and words are the elements of speech. Therefore to scrutinize syllables is not a superflous task.

...what theological term is so insignificant that it will not greatly upset the balance of the scales, unless it is used correctly?

Those who are idle in the pursuit of righteousness count theological terminology as secondary... those conscious of the goal of our calling realize that we are to become like God...

St. Basil the Great

I'm Jive With Ebonics

District to 'affirm' Ebonics

The common element in all of this is the degeneration of language into an instrument of rape. It does contain violence, albeit in latent form. And precisely this is one of the lessons recognized by Plato through his own experience with the sophist of his time, a lesson he sets before us as well. This lesson, in a nutshell, says: the abuse of political power is fundamentally connected with the sophistic abuse of the word, indeed, finds in it the fertile soil in which to hide and grow and get ready, so much so that the latent potential of the totalitarian powon can be ascertained, as it were, by observing the symptom of the public abuse of language. The degredation, too, of man through man, alarmingly evident in the acts of physical violence committed by all tyrannies (concentration camps, torture), has its beginning, certainly much less alarmingly, at that almost imperceptible moment when the word loses its dignity. The dignity of the word, to be sure, consists in this: through the word is accomplished what no other means can accomplish, namely, communication based on reality. Once again it becomes evident that both areas, as has to be expected, are connected: the relationship based on mere power, and thus most miserable decay of human interaction, stands in direct proportion to the most devastating breakdown in orientation toward reality.

Josef Pieper


Our countrymen do not want to speak too much, not because they do not have an adequate vocabulary or imagination, but because they do not want to lose the substance of the spoken word. Through abuse, words have lost their power; once a word was equal to the act, but now words are devoid of real meaning; they have become abstract. This is why monks recommend silence.

Fr. Roman Braga

Lie, lie, lie

Can a lie be taken as communication? I tend to deny it. A lie is the opposite of communication. It means specifically to withhold the other’s share and portion of reality, to prevent his participation in reality. And so: corruption of the relationship to reality, and corruption of communication—these evidently are the two possible forms in which the corruption of the word manifests itself. … The very moment, as I have stated, that someone in full awareness employs words yet explicitly disregards reality, he in fact ceases to communicate anything to the other.

Josef Pieper

pseudos...

It is entirely possible that the true and authentic reality is being drowned out by the countless superficial information bits noisily and breathlessly presented in propaganda fashion. Consequently, one may be entirely knowledgeable about a thousand details and nevertheless, because of ignorance regarding the core of the matter, remain without basic insight. ... Arnold Gehlen labeled it “a fundamental ignorance, created by technology and nourished by information”. ...the place of authentic reality is taken over by a fictitious reality; my perception is indeed still directed toward an object, but it is a pseudoreality, deceptively appearing as being real, so much so that it becomes almost impossible any more to discern the truth.

Josef Pieper

The tyranny of words

Public discourse, the moment it becomes basically neutralized with regard to a strict standard of truth, stands by its nature ready to serve as an instrument in the hands of any ruler to pursue all kinds of power schemes. Public discourse itself, separated from the standard of truth, creates on its part, the more it prevails, an atmosphere of epidemic proneness and vulnerability to the reign of the tyrant.

Josef Pieper