It sort of makes you wonder what kind of medication politicians are using these days. Words don’t always mean what a dictionary says they mean and this “alternative definition” appears to be used more and more often by political figures on the left.
Gary Johnson, the current presidential candidate for the Libertarian party, gives a letter perfect example of “alternative definition” during a recent interview.......Johnson demanded that the interviewer use the word “undocumented” in in place of the word “illegal”. In fact he went on and on and on about how Hispanics particularly in his home state of New Mexico, and he, personally, find the use of the term “illegal” highly offensive...........It’s a simple word. Even the kids in our world-class educational system (Okay, stop sniggering) know what the word illegal means. The Random House Dictionary defines the word illegal as:
1. forbidden by law or statute.
2. contrary to or forbidden by official rules,regulations, etc.........
It appears that Gov. Johnson is a bit more obvious than many who agree with him in goals, if not totally in methodology, but all are, sadly, devoted students of Lewis Carroll, the author of Through the Looking Glass. Carroll uses his character, Humpty Dumpty, to explain it all this way to Alice:
“When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less.’ ’The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’ ’The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master -- that’s all.”The last line in this work by Carroll is key. The goal of this technique is simply to show that the person defining the word is the master, that is, the master of the conversation, the argument, the issue. Everyone else is assumed to defer to the definitions of the master.......,It’s sad to think that Humpty Dumpty is directing the political future of our nation.
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