I’m a reader and a writer. Like so many other readers and writers I love words and I love finding connections and themes. Even when I don’t like what I see I still look for meaning. So: today is January 6th, the traditional end of the joyful Christmas season and the anniversary of the upending of our social and political life.
A legend, persisting even now in history books, tells us that when General Cornwallis surrendered to George Washington at Yorktown, his band played the British folk ballad, “The World Turned Upside Down.” While this may not have happened—there is no record of it until a century after the event—it endures because it feels so appropriate. The British, with their disciplined, trained, uniformed army, had lost to a ragtag bunch of farmers and craftsmen roaming at will in the woods. From their point of view, that just … wasn’t right.
The original tune was a satirical protest against the Puritans who, in the 1640s, had banned Christmas. All the celebrating that happened at Christmas annoyed them. They thought the revelry would lead to chaos and, indeed, many medieval festivals included jesters being crowned kings, social hierarchies reversed, lords of misrule. Not surprisingly, the wet blanket the Puritans threw on these antics wasn’t very popular. The people found ways to make their opinions known, with the jaunty ballad as one example:
Listen to me and you shall hear, news hath not been this thousand year:
Since Herod, Caesar, and many more, you never heard the like before.
Holy-dayes are despis’d, new fashions are devis’d.
Old Christmas is kickt out of Town.
Yet let’s be content, and the times lament, you see the world turn’d upside down.
January 6th, in the world of Christian traditions, is Epiphany, the arrival of the Three Kings to pay homage to the Baby Jesus. It is a holy day, a day of celebration, a step on the way through the calendar that will move on to the renewed revelry of Mardi Gras (Carnival) and from there to the penance of Lent and Rebirth in spring. And all of that is now interrupted by “January 6” being a date that contains a world of shocking, tragic meaning. Like “9/11” it contains such violence and assault as is difficult to comprehend, which is exactly where its enduring danger lies: the event is hard to comprehend, so the story about it is easy to manipulate.
We have all been living in a world turned upside down, where a violent attack on buildings and people is called a peaceful tourist visit, an attempt to overturn an election is called patriotism. So many lies are repeated so many times it seems impossible for thought and language to keep up.
But it isn’t. It isn’t impossible.
Remember when we all learned that when a telemarketer says, “Can you hear me ok?” and you answer yes, even though you are baffled by the question, you have actually taken the first step to agreeing to whatever the scam is? Manipulators, scammers, authoritarians, dictators, all will try to get you to agree to something, anything, the more seemingly harmless the better, because then they will move on to the next thing and soon you are agreeing to sell your soul.
Language—spoken, written, read, understood—has always been a potent weapon, for both sides. Wielding language effectively, though, begins on a personal level. It’s your soul, after all, and the authoritarian wants it.
There are strategies. Start with there. Add more as you come up with them. I would love to hear them.
- When you hear a lie, for example, know it consciously as a lie. Saying it out aloud, even if you are alone, separates you from it, gives you distance.
- Call the lie out if circumstances allow. Don’t argue about it. People who are invested in a lie are not susceptible to reason, so don’t waste your energy. Say something simple: “I love you [if that’s appropriate, of course] but I’m not with you on this.”
- Don’t be outraged, for the same reason. Outrage is a waste of resources you need to conserve and accomplishes nothing.
If that doesn’t seem to get you anywhere, don’t worry, it will. You are going to be asked to say, or believe, or accept for the sake of keeping the peace, that the sky is green and the grass is blue. It isn’t, so don’t.
We may be in for some dark times, even as the sun returns. So, as Susan Cooper says, “carol, feast, give thanks, and dearly love your friends.” And be a fierce defender of accurate words.