"The road to tyranny, we must remember, begins with the destruction of the truth."

Doublespeak is language that deliberately disguises, distorts, or reverses the meaning of words. Doublespeak may take the form of euphemisms (e.g., "downsizing" for layoffs), making the truth less unpleasant, without denying its nature. It may also be deployed as intentional ambiguity, or reversal of meaning (for example, naming a state of war "peace"). In such cases, doublespeak disguises the nature of the truth, producing a communication bypass. (source-Wikipedia)

Just say a simple, ‘Yes, I will,’ or ‘No, I won’t.’ Anything beyond this is from the evil one. – Mathew 5:37

Life would be so much simpler if our yes meant yes and our no meant no. Unfortunately, although many a time when we say yes, we actually mean but followed by maybe, possibly, hopefully, quite certainly, perhaps, probably and almost quite inevitably the famous, I don’t know…

That can never be more fully explained than in the vigorous shaking of head that accompanies an Indian yes. After detailed explanations to the driver as to how to get to a particular destination, you ask the famous question – have you understood?  And the equally famous reply, the shaking of the head, or rather bobbing of the head from side to side. Ambiguity at its best…

But jokes aside, the world as we know it, has mastered the art of doublespeak. We may not bob our heads the Indian way, but we do so silently and explicitly, in our lives, in the ways in which we conveniently forget the truth in expressions like ‘define is’ and in the manner in which we shamelessly flaunt our bypassing of the reality and veracity of honesty.

Not too long ago, and I mean just even twenty years ago, a man’s word stood for something. What had been said or was uttered was considered to be true. There were no hidden agendas, no word playing, no entendres. There was no immediate dissection after that as to what he meant by it, or whether he hinted at something more, or even that it meant the opposite of what had been said.

Unfortunately, as we have seen in the last two decades, a man is no longer responsible for what he says. With the exception of Rev. Billy Graham, my mother and a few of us politically incorrect folks, all of us suffer from convenient memory lapses when it comes to speaking the truth.

Truth, after all, is an inconvenient liability and more often than not, sacrificed for the ‘greater good’, for what many believe to be ‘right’ - for the company, for the image, for the nation.  

The harsh reality of this world of doublespeak? Nowhere more predominant than in the Christian world and nowhere more ruthlessly displayed.  And that, unfortunately, is the truth of the day…

 ⁸ Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves,
   for the rights of all who are destitute.
⁹ Speak up and judge fairly;
   defend the rights of the poor and needy….. Proverbs 31:8-9