Killing by another name...

Newsweek's current issue knows how to get the reader's attention with the cover headline "How Obama Learned to Kill," but somehow the article inside goes all wobbly when it comes to describing the president's ordering death sentences in the Middle East.

In the Newsweek story we learn that Anwar al-Awlaki, born in New Mexico and ringleader of terrorists in Yemen, isn't "killed" at all in an American missile attack.

He is "eliminated."

To parse the difference, "killing" is what the president and our government did; "elimination" is what happened to al-Awlaki. It's similar to the difference between using the active and passive voice.

Obama ordered the killing of Al-Awlaki. (Active)

Al-awlaki was eliminated. (Passive...we don't know who did the eliminating). By the way, professional basketball teams are "eliminated" from tournaments. So far, none has been killed.

George Orwell in his classic essay "Politics and the English Language" wrote, "... political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness." One example he uses reads like front page news. "Defenseless villages are bombarded from the air, the inhabitants driven out into the countryside, the cattle machine-gunned, the huts set on fire with incendiary bullets: this is called 'pacification'."

Well, actually, it is now called "elimination" and we use robotic drones to do the dirty work, but you get the point. "Pacification" is what we had in Vietnam, 15 years after Orwell's death. Today it is "elimination" and it takes place in Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia and Afghanistan. Tomorrow, no doubt,  our government will be eliminating in Iran.

There's more Orwellian mind-twisting in the Newsweek story, much of it created by our government's "intelligence" strategists. Drones are sent to "eliminate" "signature" targets — those that bear the "signature" of being terrorist gatherings. Never mind that weddings and harmless tribal meetings have the same "signature." Willy-nilly, the signatures of those attending invite death warrants.

They become "collateral damage."

As Orwell notes, "...every such phrase anesthetizes a portion of one's brain."

One could easily extend the anesthetizing metaphor to our military, political, industrial, communications culture today. Indeed, the language we choose to use, to read and listen to anesthetize us all.

Orwell went on to write about such a society in his classic "1984." It's worth reading and rereading.

Dots

A friend who is also a former student recently wrote me about the decision by educated people to not have children. She wondered what the consequences might be — for those involved, for society and for the planet.

She wrote that the topic seemed to produce disconnected dots and many more questions. She invited me to help connect the dots and presumably answer the questions.

I wrote back that we have a lot more dot/questions to identify before we can connect and answer.

Then, in a flurry, I shared my own.

What does it mean to be informed? What does it mean to be aware? How do those two differ? Does a gush of disconnected information drown awareness?

How does technology shape us? Undo us? Better us? (What about "information technology"?)

My friend is a journalist, so I asked about the future of journalism. Does it have one? What IS journalism? What is it becoming?

So many of our problems fall to the schools to solve, but are the schools (rigid, outmoded, underfunded) up to the enormous task? What does it mean to be educated? What does it mean to be "prepared for life"? Who decides?

What is intelligence? Is there intelligent life on Earth? If so, where is it? Who are the teachers? The seers?

Are our leaders intelligent? If not, why not? Could it have to do with the way we choose them? Could it have to do with the complexity of our problems?

How can we best use our brief time here on this green, fragile "pebble in space"?

Service? Living lives of compassion? Spiritual seeking? Simple survival? Raising and nurturing children, our own and/or those of others? Escapism? Endless video games? Celebrity worship? "Fighting" evil? "Fighting" war? God worship? No-God worship? Worship? Praying? Should our lives be manifestations of our prayers, whether silent or spoken?

What about Accumulation of wealth? Accumulation of wealth and then giving it away?

How can we become "agents of change in our circle of influence"?

"Change" to what? What is our "circle of influence"? "HOW can we"?

Dots.

Hundreds of dots.

My invitation to you, and to her, is to add to the list.

We'll connect them later.