Jeff McAlister

“Words strain,/Crack, and sometimes break, under the burden.”— T.S. Eliot

Having lived on this Earth for six decades, I have witnessed a lot of change, not all of it good. Much of the change involves language: the changing meaning of words, and also the manipulative use of them by elites and ideologues.

To begin with, consider the term “undocumented immigrant.” This phrase is used to sidestep the difficult and uncomfortable fact that millions of people are breaking existing laws to enter our country. The term serves as a sedative to calm the apprehension of anarchy at our southern border.

Another term I have encountered with increasing frequency is “abortion care.” This phrase is, of course, an oxymoron. Abortion is the willful destruction of innocent preborn human lives, and nothing in the process involves “care,” either for the mother or the child. This serves as a reminder that, though Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022 by the U. S. Supreme Court after nearly half a century of misshaping our laws and culture, its destructive legacy lives on for the time being.

Perhaps one of the most troubling instances of semantic manipulation involves the overuse, and indeed misuse, of the word “genocide.” The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines genocide as “the murder of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group, with the aim of destroying that nation or group.”

In the past several months, following the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre of Israeli civilians by Hamas, we have seen an increase of charges of “genocide” by numerous people, not directed at the perpetrators, but at the Israeli response. This is remarkable, in that the Israelis have, however imperfectly, attempted to keep civilian casualties at a minimum, while Hamas terrorists have in fact boasted of their use of civilians as human shields.

The Hamas charter makes abundantly clear their desire to eliminate the Jewish state, a nation that has been surrounded by hostile foes for most of its existence. Hamas carries on the legacy of numerous Islamist radicals, including Haj Amin al-Husseini (1897-1974), the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, who openly allied himself with Adolf Hitler, made broadcasts on Nazi Germany radio, and encouraged Hitler in pursuing the “final solution” to the Jewish problem. So the word “genocide” should not be thrown about promiscuously, especially now, at a time when we are seeing what appears to be a reincarnation of the Hitler Youth movement on elite university campuses.

I will conclude by saying this: Words matter. Use words wisely and honestly, not deceptively or recklessly. Our use of language will have consequences, for good or for ill.

May we use language to pursue the good, true and beautiful.