The Craft of Serpents

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, ‘Indeed, has God said, “You shall not eat from any tree of the garden?”‘” (Genesis 3:1, NAU)

“You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.” (Matthew 12:34, NAU)

The Craft of 1984: Redefining Meaning

One of the scenes in George Orwell’s 1984 reveals Winston working in the Ministry of Truth (One of the four Ministries that comprise the government’s apparatus. Love, Plenty, and Peace are the other three, for whose who never read 1984). It is there where Winston revises existing records of the government’s past forecasts to conform to its current pronouncements.

For eighteen months, we have heard nothing but prevarication, equivocation, verbal evasion, and blame-shifting from this regime:

• “2020 was the most secure election, ever;”
• “These protests are mostly peaceful;”
• “This vaccine will prevent you from getting COVID;”
• “Rising gas prices are Putin’s fault;”
• “Men can get pregnant;”
• “January 6th rioters killed five cops;”
• “Gun manufacturers are immune from liability, and cannot be sued;”
• “The economy is in great shape. We have the lowest unemployment, ever. All the economists say so;”
• “Our inflation rate is the lowest in the world;”
• “We’re not trying to take your guns away, . . . [but] I will do away with 9mm pistols and rifles;”
• “I don’t know anything about my son’s businesses;”
• “We are in a period of unprecedented economic expansion;”

and so on, ad nauseum.

For about that year and a half, I have been trying to categorize the machinations and articulations, especially the articulations, of Brandon, his handlers, and his sycophants. They are striking analogues to 1984‘s slogan, “War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength.”

While watching King Brandon the Feeble and his puppeteers attempt to redefine “recession” last night, I was struck by an epiphany. He and his cohorts meet the scriptural definition of serpent and viper: They lie; they know they lie; and they don’t care if their lying is uncovered for they are (in their own minds) accountable to no one.

Americans are being told to disbelieve their “lying eyes,” and just accept the pronounced “truth, over facts” (Biden, Iowa State Fair, 8/8/2019) as it is given to us. Through their lies they redefine accepted meanings to conform to their self-constructed narratives–a characteristic of tyrannies. For the serpents, identical phrases used in different narratives require different meanings.

We, in fact, are facing genuine evil.