The Transformation of Language: A New Age for America

To plunder, to slaughter, to steal, these things they misname Empire; and where they make a wilderness, they call it Peace. - Tacitus, Roman Historian

Now that the Obama Administration has taken power, it is critical for us to pay attention for how our language is being transformed before our eyes. The transformation of language is a common way for governments to take power without violence and with the appearance of legitimacy in a society that still holds its constitution, history and freedoms dear to it.  In other words, it is a way for governments to implement change in a way that doesn't feel or look like much change at all. Change you can believe in, for sure.

Let us look at Rome and how the transformation of language was essential in the rise to power of Augustus. Now I am not equating Augustus with Obama. So you Obama fanboys can calm down and drink your milk and cookies.  The Augustan period is a period not only of the transformation of a republic into an empire, but is also a fascinating study on the nature of propaganda and the state. Its lessons are not taught in our schools. That is most unfortunate, because the propaganda we experience on a daily basis is no less powerful and no less preposterous than it was at that time. People ought to be wary.

Also I'd like to put in an aside. The period of Augustus gave birth to some of the most magnificent pieces of art in both literature and architecture. I do not diminish this. But, all the same, Augustus was a brutal, uncompromising dictator, no different from any other. He was also able to, with ease, create a public image of himself as man of clemency, peace and beneficence. It is to this day difficult for historians to discover the man behind the myth. Even Tacitus, in his Annals, was unable to extract fact from rumor in his attempt to document the death of Augustus.

But the successes and reverses of the old Roman people have been recorded by famous historians; and fine intellects were not wanting to describe the times of Augustus, till growing sycophancy scared them away. The histories of Tiberius, Caius, Claudius, and Nero, while they were in power, were falsified through terror, and after their death were written under the irritation of a recent hatred...

... the infirmities of Augustus increased, and some suspected guilt on his wife's part. For a rumour had gone abroad that a few months before he had sailed to Planasia on a visit to Agrippa, with the knowledge of some chosen friends, and with one companion, Fabius Maximus; that many tears were shed on both sides, with expressions of affection, and that thus there was a hope of the young man being restored to the home of his grandfather. This, it was said, Maximus had divulged to his wife Marcia, she again to Livia. All was known to Caesar, and when Maximus soon afterwards died, by a death some thought to be self-inflicted, there were heard at his funeral wailings from Marcia, in which she reproached herself for having been the cause of her husband's destruction. Whatever the fact was, Tiberius as he was just entering Illyria was summoned home by an urgent letter from his mother, and it has not been thoroughly ascertained whether at the city of Nola he found Augustus still breathing or quite lifeless. For Livia had surrounded the house and its approaches with a strict watch, and favourable bulletins were published from time to time, till, provision having been made for the demands of the crisis, one and the same report told men that Augustus was dead and that Tiberius Nero was master of the State.

In order for Augustus to have seized power legitimately qua Emperor, he needed to shroud his language in way that was acceptable to the republican ears of old Rome.  He called himself princeps which meant something like "primary citizen".  He did not call himself dictator or rex, in order to conjure support from the Senate and the people who would have been threatened by any such title.

Now we all know now that the Augustan seizure of power marked the end of the old republican form of government, and the beginning of what would become the Roman Empire. Nevertheless, Augustus used the word "restoration" to describe what was essentially the destruction of an old republic that had become corrupt with civil war, greed and treason. Augustus, taking advantage of the weakness of the Senate and the moral fiber of the city, painted himself as the savior of that city, the man who would return it to its roots, both morally and religiously. He made ample use of the old republican gods by employing poets and artists to depict himself and his family as being the offspring of divinity. The Latin word domus, the household, once associated in the old republic with the sacred hearth and family,  became associated with the divine household of Augustus. The domestic house became what was essentially the State itself, and it was a State that was, according to Augustan propaganda, sanctioned by the gods and the religion of the old republic.

Augustus masterfully transformed the sanctity of the household into the sanctity of the State. The Old Republic was officially dead. The Empire took its place, but still called itself the republic (res publica, trans: the public matters/things). Augustus was said to have finally brought peace to Rome (Pax Romana). Horace celebrated him with that monument of his poems, Virgil sung the Homeric-style travails of Trojan Aeneas, Augustus' so-called ancestor and founder of Rome. Buildings were built depicting Augustus and his family as divine, as gods of this new holistic state.  The army loved him because he shrouded himself in the great memory of Caesar, their beloved general. All opposition to the Empire was demonized and removed either through exile or murder or both. Augustus, an imposter who managed to seize absolute and total power over Rome, was probably one of the most brilliant politicians that ever lived.

I am going to include here a poem written by Horace. It is addressed to Augustus. Read it and consider how Augustus' image is not that far off from the image created for Obama. I am including the Latin, for those who can follow it. When I first read the poem I found it offensive. Even more so now. I did the best I could with the translation, attempting to emphasize what I believe Horace emphasized. Horace uses images of drunkenness  throughout his poems. You can only imagine why...

Diuis orte bonis, optime Romulae custos gentis, abes iam nimium diu; maturum reditum pollicitus patrum sancto concilio, redi. Lucem redde tuae, dux bone, patriae; instar ueris enim uoltus ubi tuus adfulsit populo, gratior it dies     et soles melius nitent. Vt mater iuuenem, quem Notus inuido flatu Carpathii trans maris aequora cunctantem spatio longius annuo     dulci distinet a domo, uotis ominibusque et precibus uocat, curuo nec faciem litore dimouet: sic desideriis icta fidelibus     quaerit patria Caesarem. Tutus bos etenim rura perambulat, nutrit rura Ceres almaque Faustitas, pacatum uolitant per mare nauitae,     culpari metuit fides, nullis polluitur casta domus stupris, mos et lex maculosum edomuit nefas, laudantur simili prole puerperae,     culpam poena premit comes. Quis Parthum paueat, quis gelidum Scythen, quis Germania quos horrida parturit fetus, incolumi Caesare? Quis ferae     bellum curet Hiberiae? Condit quisque diem collibus in suis et uitem uiduas ducit ad arbores; hinc ad uina redit laetus et alteris     te mensis adhibet deum; te multa prece, te prosequitur mero defuso pateris et Laribus tuum miscet numen, uti Graecia Castoris     et magni memor Herculis. 'Longas o utinam, dux bone, ferias praestes Hesperiae!' dicimus integro sicci mane die, dicimus uuidi,     cum sol Oceano subest.

Born with the favor of the gods, chief custodian of the Roman people, you [Augustus]have been away from us for far too long. Return! You are under oath to our Founding Fathers, for a speedy return. Dear Leader, return Daylight to your Fatherland; Like spring, wherever your face has shined for the people, The days pass more pleasantly, the suns shine brighter. Just as a mother, whose son having been far away from sweet home and buffeted by the waves of the sea, calls out to him with prayers and invocations and never leaves the shore of the sea, so too does the Fatherland faithfully yearn for Caesar [Augustus]. For only a safe cow can wander around the countryside, that both Ceres and Fertility cultivate with care. Only a peaceful sea can be traversed by sailors. Faith and trust fears the possibility of its own  transgression. The moral household is polluted by no defilement, Moral code and law overpower  [edomuit] transgression, Babies are praised when similar to their fathers, Swiftly punishment crushes sin. Who will fear the Parthian, who the armed Scythian? Who Will fear the awful children of Germany? Who will fear bellicose Spain, as long as Caesar is undefeated? Each farmer spends his days in his own hills, Joining vine to trees, from which he, having extracted his wine, returns home and invites  you to his meal, a god amongst the rest of the gods. he beseeches you with much prayer, with wine poured out from bowls, and he combines your divine will with the household gods, just as Greece remembers Castor and Hercules the Hero. "O Dear Leader, may you grant long periods of peace to the WEST!" we say, when sober in the morning and, again, when drunken in the evening, when the sun sinks beneath the sea.

Horace's actual position regarding Augustus is an interesting question. The image of a farmer who spends his mornings and evenings thanking the blessings of a god like Augustus is absurd, just as America's infatuation with Obama is absurd. But that is what is fun about reading Horace - the question regarding his true opinion lingers throughout his poems. I personally believe he finds Augustus and his so-called Golden Age completely repugnant. But he would have feared for his welfare and his life if he were to resist. Whether that is prudence or cowardice, I leave for you to decide.

Regardless, Augustus is presented as someone who will save the world and bring peace to all. He was literally worshiped as a god by the people, something that would have been absolutely foul to the morals of the true old Republic.  In the poem, it appears that enemies will no longer be a problem in this new world order. In that case, foreign relations will simply be offers of peace and diplomacy.  Wars will be justified only as threats to that peace and diplomacy.  Unlike Bush, Obama will only engage in just wars in the name of peace. Talk about spin! This is a master spider at work.

Consider too Obama's executive order to close Gitmo and in the meantime delay hearings. Some of the people held in Gitmo are terrorists who participated in 9/11. Doesn't matter. The world has forgotten. The families who lost loved ones are ignored by the media. There is going to be a concerted effort to reformulate the world to the public in such a way so that Obama's presence will appear to have quelled external threats, or if such threats emerge, to immediately, peacefully and QUIETLY put them down.  What this means is that we will not know much of what is really happening in the world. The media will only highlight what it wishes. Transparency, no matter how many times Obama declares that it will be a part of our new government, is going to become a sham. And the more he talks about employing transparency, the more I know he is lying. What he says is less important than what he doesn't say.

One thing I'd like you to look at in the poem is the word "WEST" (Hesperia). Like Obama, the international and local scope of Augustus was blurred - intentionally. Is he the divine ruler of Rome? Is he the divine ruler of the World?  Of the West? Obama's internationalism, like Augustus' once did, is preparing us for something like a One World Government. I am convinced of this. That is why it is absolutely necessary that America's goals become parallel with or identical to the goals of world organizations like the U.N.

In the future, if it has not already transpired, young Americans will have difficulty in really distinguishing the difference between America and the World, except in terms of their geographical position. When that occurs, if it hasn't already, America will go into the forgetfulness of history, just like the old Republic of Rome or even worse, as something that it never was in the first place. Many, upon hearing that, don't and will not care. That is progress for ya!

To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. - Cicero

Cross-posted at Modern Conservative