"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.'" Through the Looking Glass, by Lewis Carroll
Alice asked Humpty Dumpty what he meant by using the word “glory.” The anthropomorphic egg replied, “It means what I choose it to mean.”
That’s language for you, isn’t it? Let’s say, for example, one uses the words freedom fighter to refer to a person admired for his or her military exploits, as long as those exploits are aligned with what right-thinking people admire. To another person of a different political shade, however, a freedom fighter may be what the rest of us right-thinking people would readily judge to be a terrorist. Political choices usually make themselves known when one selects diction. To the point, think about these slippery words: democracy, justice, truth. Such unfocused words are amazingly bendable, so much so that they simply lose their shape and meaning. Like looking into a funhouse mirror, one might easily distort these words to risible proportions.
For instance, North Korea’s officially calls itself the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. I may be using a biased definition, but, as a one-party dictatorship nation, North Korea is not even close to what one imagines a democracy to be. Right along with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, North Korea is about as authoritarian as governments get. The Democracy Index, an effective guide compiled by UK-based company does its best to measure the caliber and quality of democracy in 167 countries, of which 166 are sovereign states and 164 are UN member states. Guess which two countries that use an eponymous term to call themselves democratic but are as far from the meaning as possible? Yup, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the Democratic Republic of Congo. By the way, our self-declared freedom-loving republic, leader of the free world and favored by our own assessment as an ideal democracy, is rated no higher than 25th among democracies in the world. Go ask Norway and Iceland what the word democratic means. They have the highest rated democratic systems among all nations in the world.
Justice is another problematic word. Typically we look to our legal system to ensure that justice is accurately served, “an eye for an eye,” and all that biblical wisdom, but as we all know, law and justice are not comfortable bedfellows. If one has enough money or political influence, justice may be delayed or forsaken altogether. The written definition of justice does little to help us understand the function of justice in our malfunctioning, broken world. The universal image of justice (blindfolded figure holding sword and scales) works well only in our imaginations. Again, what is fair and just for one is nothing of the sort for another. Social justice, for instance, depends upon one’s point-of-view and one’s social affiliations. Historically discriminated against groups (gays, racial and political minorities, migrant workers, homeless people, and all those on the margins of mainstream society) probably view America’s justice system as an injustice system, one in which they have little or no influence. Such as it is, that is the truth. Which brings us to truth itself.
Truth ought to be easy to corner, right? I mean truth is what Aristotle and Plato and Aquinas deemed it to be. Truth is what Jesus said it to mean. To use a circular definition, truth is what we know to be true. Fire is hot. A triangle has three sides. “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Truth is true. But like putting one’s finger on a bead of quicksilver, truth has a way of refusing to be held down for inspection. So as one digs into the views of truth over the centuries, mostly from philosophers who love to split hairs, one is left with a spinning head and a world of confusion. One might even conclude that truth is such a complicated notion that no one can ever know what the hell it is. Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, claimed that ‘truth isn’t truth,’ which makes no sense at all, and one may venture to say isn’t true. But whatever it is, people will never agree that the answer is truth itself.
These touchstone words (democracy, justice, truth), grand concepts all, are worth fighting and even dying for, I suppose, but, finally, they also are beyond words.