Opus 2026-398: Lazy Eye

I am due for cataract surgery.  When I went in for the preparation work, one of the technicians called my condition “lazy eye”.  That is probably the most common name for it, but she then got apologetic for using the term.  The technical term is a combination of two Greek words which mean moving and eye, or if you want to sound cool, you could call it ambling eye.  She was worried that I would take offense by using the term.

Since I’m somebody who likes labels and likes to make up my own names for people it would seem a bit inconsistent to get offended by a common every day phrase.  It is amazing how easily people are offended.  Think of the way this is manipulated by the media and academic circles.  Take for instance Americans who have have ancestors from Africa.  At one point, they were called blacks.  Negro became the technical term.  Then the politically correct crowd got in and they came African-American.  Somewhere in there they were called colored, but when that was labeled racist, instead they became people of color.  And of course, you have the consistent word starting with an N.  Such nonsense.  I have a bit of a joke that I like to tell, I’m not sure if it’s mine or I’ve borrowed it, but I asked somebody what would I call a certain student and the target of my joke was afraid to answer.   After a dramatic pause I tell them I would call him, Steve.   Guess what his name was.

In the process of manipulating the vocabulary of a culture we are robbing it of clarity and the ability to communicate.  Do you want to call me a right winger?  I will wear the badge with pride.  You want to call me a racist?  At this point in my life, I would wear that badge with pride because I know that it simply means is that I disagree with a liberal.  I wish I could earn the tag of being toxically masculine, but I’m far from that.  On the other side, I am filled with horror when the woke crowd calls me tolerant.  Tolerant doesn’t mean what it used to mean.

Those of us with moral standards and an understanding that there are unchangeable truths are going to have to develop a much thicker skin and just keep moving forward.  Ignore the fools trying to manipulate.  Think of this reality that terrorism does not really depend on how many people you kill, it depends on how many people you get to change their way of living out of fear.  The same thing goes for all these try to control you.

Stand tall.  Put up a finger to detect which way the wind is flowing.  Lean in that direction become a leaning meaning machine.

homo unius libri