Now, there is a title for you. This blog will reveal just how much "Mumbo Jumbo" we actually have.
I am going to start out with "Reform". How many times have you heard that we need to reform this or that? How about reforming our immigration policy or how about reforming police? It happens all the time and most of us go along with the "mumbo jumbo". What does it actually mean to "reform" something? It is used because when people hear this being said, they think about what they would like to see "reformed".
Why don't we hear things like we need to change our immigration policy so that we don't let in people who are going to be a drag on our economy? One reason is that this is too long of a statement and many listeners will tune out before the speaker gets to his final punch line. It is not just that politicians do this, we all do it without even thinking it. What if you told a friend that you did not like the food in this or that restaurant? They might agree with you, which is what you really wanted them to do, but there is more. What if they actually like the food that you did not, but didn't like some other food? You would be talking about apples and oranges without even knowing it.
How about Obama's slogan, "Hope and Change"? What do you think he actually meant with that slogan? We all have "hope" so most would agree with that, except we "hope" for different things. Again apples and oranges. What needs to be "changed"? It looks like the same thing all over again, apples and oranges. Are you starting to see how we all fall into this Mumbo Jumbo thing?
When you are talking about the police, why don't we be more specific and talk about exactly what we want to "change"? Crime seems like the main focus and objective of the police, so why don't we all talk about that? What do we want changed so that their is less crime? If we would talk about that, we might start getting some place. If we want the police to use less force when they arrest someone for a crime, why don't we talk about that point? Exactly what is the procedure for the average policeman when they arrest someone? What if the person resists the arrest? What does the policeman do "now" that you are concerned about and who would you want to change it? In this case, I think that the policeman uses the minimum force necessary to effect the arrest. If the person being arrested puts up more resistance, the policeman uses a "little" more force. It is clearly the person being arrested who determines the amount of force being used.
In our daily discussions with other people, we use this mumbo jumbo too. We want people to agree with us as much as possible so that we use this double meaning mumbo jumbo all the time. If you were talking about last Sunday's football game, you might say to your friend that, "...the ref was really bad.." and your friend would agree because he saw a call that he disagreed with. You might be thinking that he agreed with you and that you were both talking about the same play. In fact, you were talking and thinking about different plays. Again, apples and oranges.
The bottom line is that if you want our politicians to stop using mumbo mumbo, then you and me have to stop using it too. If we all do that, we might have a chance at better communication and in the end we might actually agree a lot more.
PS--I should have started out on "reimagine". Do you have any idea what the hell that means? I don't. I do know that a person can "think" or "imagine" anything even if it is totally impossible. Does that give you confidence that "reimagining" anything would result in anything positive? In the case of civilizations for thousands of years wanting to be save, they have come up with some kind of police department. Now some people who are in to "reimagining" want to throw out thousands of years of progress my civilized humans when they have "zero" experience building anything. My family was part of the "regulators" in North Carolina long before the USA existed, because they wanted law and order and safety for their families. If you don't know about the "regulators", you don't know much about American history.
