Would
you rather belong to the "Apple Dumpling Gang" or the
"Crypts"? The connotation of
the word gang reaches "hit an all
time low" in the 1990's. We
envision today's gang members as drug lords who kill each other on street corners. Society rejects and imprisons them. Once members of a "gang" simply
shared common interests and enjoyed social acceptance, much as members of a
club today. Many pairs of words have
experienced a similar disagreement in connotation throughout the years.
The term "revolutionary" currently
enjoys more social acceptance than terrorist.
The mind-set of a
revolutionary thinks he/she must change a horrific aspect of society by forcing
a break-down in government. In the mind
of a terrorist he/she must alter an aspect of society he deplores in society by
bombings, hijackings, and assassinations.
The United States' history makes us sympathetic to revolutionaries
because the war between America and the British. No books refer to it as the American Terrorism
because terrorism connotes anarchy and a lack of social structure. The actual difference in strategy between the
two groups may appear more gentle, however, they both kill.
Regarding the words "gang" and
"club" only one denotes violence.
The dictionary defines gang as, "A group of persons working
together; a group of persons having informal and usual close social
relations." The definition of a
club reads as follows, "An association of persons for some common object
usually jointly supported and meeting periodically." Hidden beneath each definition, lies a more
subjective, personal definition lodged in each of our minds. Why must society negatively characterize
gangs and positively characterize clubs?
We now associate the word "gang" with group of juvenile
delinquents who create disturbances with violence and misconduct. Commonly, society associates, the word
"club" with a positive environment where young people can have
positive role models in their lives who support them. Unfortunately gangs correspond with
corruption and clubs equate with honor.
Maybe we can solve the gang problem by getting them to join clubs.
Yet another combination of words similarly
defined, yet with a very different application in everyday life include
"religion" and "cult."
Every religion on Earth has at one time had the status of a cult, According to Webester's dictionary a cult has
one major characteristic, "A system of religious belief and
ritual." A religion too has a
single distinct quality, "Commitment or devotion to a deity, faith or
observance." Unfortunate, In
today's world, a cult will send you to eternal damnation while religion will
save you from it. With deeper analysis,
one might contrive that religion controls the masses about people with propaganda and messages of Satan
whereas cults teach the true voice of God that evade many people who remain
unaware of the desired spiritual effects.
Thus, many pairs of words like "gang and
club" and "religion and cult" that once possessed similar meanings have experienced a
divergence in actual application. One
way to more accurately defines words might involve publishing new dictionaries
for each year, so libraries would discard superseded editors. Dictionaries could be created for people of
different regions, different backgrounds, different philosophies, different
occupations, and different biases. Could
we each publish our own dictionaries perhaps?
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