Rivers flow and ocean waves crash on beaches — ever changing, ever the same, ever constant. So too, it appears, are human words... and actions — ever blaring, ever hateful, ever constant. Seventy-five years ago, Aldous Huxley wrote:
“Recent years have seen the publication of numerous works on semantics and of an ocean of nationalistic, racialistic and militaristic propaganda. Never have so many capable writers warned mankind against the dangers of wrong speech — and never have words been used more recklessly by politicians or taken more seriously by the public. The fact is surely proof enough that, under changing forms, the old problems remain what they always were — urgent, unsolved and, to all appearances, insoluble.” Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, 1944.
The solace — we are no more hateful now than we’ve always been. The sadness — we are no less hateful now than we’ve always been.