The Power of Words

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Do you remember the old days, the days when we used to look at Russia with a kind of scornful wonder and say "they don't have freedom of religion, speech or press!" My, how that worm's turned here in America; post thoughtcrime on Facebook and get fired from your job, to say nothing of anything else. Still, words and the ideas behind them have creative power, whether for good or ill. Here's Dorothy Sayers:

This is the Power of the Word, and it is dangerous.  Every word—even every idle word—will be accounted for at the day of judgment, because the word itself has power to bring to judgment.  It is of the nature of the word to reveal itself and to incarnate itself—to assume material form.  Its judgment is therefore an intellectual, but also a material judgment.  The habit, very prevalent to-day, of dismissing words as “just words” takes no account of their power.  But once the Idea has entered into other minds, it will tend to reincarnate itself there with ever-increasing Energy and ever-increasing Power.  It may for some time only incarnate itself in more words, more books, more speeches; but the day comes when it incarnates itself in actions, and this is its day of judgment.  At the time when these words are being written, we are witnessing a fearful judgment of blood, (WWII) resulting from the incarnation in deeds of an Idea to which, when it was content with a verbal revelation, we paid singularly little heed.  

Which Ideas are (morally) Good and which are anti-Good it is not the purpose of this book to discuss; what is now abundantly manifest is the Power.  Any Idea whose Energy manifests itself in a Pentecost of Power is good from its own point of view.  It shows itself to be a true act of creation, although, if it is an evil Idea, it will create to a large extent by active negation—that is to say, by destruction.  The fact, however, that “all activity is of God” means that no creative Idea can be wholly destructive: some creation will be produced together with the destruction; and it is the work of the creative mind to see that the destruction is redeemed by its creative elements.

 

It is the work of the creative mind to see that the destruction is redeemed by its creative elements. 

Sayers, to my mind, wrote with remarkable and perhaps mystical depth and insight. You may disagree, and I'd defend your right to do so with all the guns and swords I tragically lost in last year's catastrophic boating accident. Regardless, let's rise to the challenge, and see that the destruction of the present time's redeemed.

I'd say it's badly needed. Open forum and here endeth the Lesson.

Your Friend,

LSP