As goes our language so goes our freedom

“We have not killed God until we have killed grammar,” the famous atheist philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once wrote. These lines would indicate that perhaps God is on his last leg.

In a recent interview, renowned Catholic writer and professor Dr. Peter Kreeft asserted that he is astonished by the lack of knowledge that he encounters among university freshmen in the fields of history, logic, literature, and philosophy. The glaring dismissive ignorance in these fields is not surprising, given that little to no funding is given to the liberal arts at the university level in the U.S.

Kreeft cited recent reputable data wherein it was reported that the STEM subjects (i.e., science, technology, engineering, and math) received 99.4 per cent of the institutional budgets at American universities, leaving a meagre 0.6 per cent for the humanities.

This is a cause for concern. When a society can innovate anything it can imagine, but its “imaginations” have not been borne of a solid, rigorous understanding of ethics and philosophy, the exhilarating breakneck pace of innovation could merely be an irresponsible experiment that hastens the disintegration of human dignity and free will.

In her book Walking on Water, Madeleine L’Engle writes that the wilful ignorance of grammar and language always means a forfeit of freedom. “We cannot Name or be Named without language. If our vocabulary dwindles to a few shopworn words, we are setting ourselves up for takeover by a dictator. When language becomes exhausted, our freedom dwindles – we cannot think; we do not recognize danger; injustice strikes us as no more than ‘the way things are’ ... I might even go to the extreme of declaring that the deliberate diminution of vocabulary by a dictator, or an advertising copywriter, is anti-Christian.”

Kreeft explains that the humanities have taken a nosedive in their relevance to our lives for several reasons. The first is the obvious: the money is in science and technology. Also, many of the humanities have been completely hijacked by “deconstructionists and reductionists.”

Many of the once-complex existential and philosophical concepts have been reduced to arguments about gender, sexuality, and, ultimately, relativism.

The ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius (479 BC) is touted as the sage of all sages among the Chinese. His writings, often called “suggestions,” are probably not trendy enough for exegesis in university classrooms, but perhaps they are still read for their nostalgic quaintness and naïveté. Confucius was once challenged to choose only one suggestion that he would want the whole world to obey. The suggestion he chose was “Restore the proper names to things.” In other words, call things by their names. Let people feel the full, glorious weight of the words and make up their own minds how they choose to interact with the language for themselves.

Words can certainly hurt. We all know that. But a lack of words at our command most certainly hurts us more in the long run. No one who loves full-bodied, precise language is advocating for the flippant use of aggressive language. That’s what the deconstructionists would have everyone believe.

To learn language is to learn to listen to what is being said; no one can be an eloquent speaker without first being astute in assessing context and etiquette. If you have a chance, Google a few definitions from the 1828 edition of Webster’s dictionary and then cross-compare them with the modern definition. Start with the word “education.”

It is of utmost importance that we and our children be students before masters. We need to understand the ultimate goal behind our innovation. Unless a proper moral context has been established, what begins as innovation can become a religion wherein health, wealth, and tolerance are the only virtues of value.

As Christians, we strive to live differently. We seek to live in a way that demonstrates our peacefulness and trust, come what may. We speak truth, make the best decisions we can, and conduct ourselves simply without seeking to control and manipulate others. Our lifelong quest is to return home to God and to live a life of truth, goodness, and beauty so that others can find their way alongside us.

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