Lost in Translation – Why Civil War is Inevitable

Guest Post by NickelthroweR

My mother is from Northern Italy and as a child I had the good fortune to travel with her several times as she returned home to visit with friends and family. She was raised near the great cities of Venice, Padua, Verona and Florence and together we could take day trips to see the cathedrals, museums, parks and monuments that cover that part of Italy. These works of art are not silent monoliths but are peppered with inscriptions in Latin, French and Italian. Whether to honor God, the Republic of Veneto, a great victory or a great man, the creators of these treasures very much wanted to preserve that voice through time so they carved their messages in stone or found a way to make it part of the art itself.

Often times I would ask my mother to translate an inscription if I saw something that my young eyes found interesting and many times, to my disappointment, my mother would tell me that the statement didn’t translate into English. As a child, I just accepted that this was the way languages work but as I became a man it became very clear to me that when something did not translate it meant that there were ideas and concepts that other people could have but that I could not have because I did not possess the key to unlock it. I had to come to terms with the fact that part of the lesson that there was to be learned from some art was beyond my reach and always would be so.

One. . .Few. . .Many

Before I get to why I think this will lead to Civil War, I want to look at one last example of this problem and that would be with the Indians of N. America. Imagine how difficult it would be to try to plan a future trade deal with someone who could only number the world around them with either one, few or many. How could you say, “bring me 50 beaver pelts and I will give you a horse” to someone that has no understanding of the concept of 50? Even if both parties want the same thing it may be difficult to pull off because many and 50 are mutually exclusive. Think about how angry a young Indian man might feel when he brought his “many” pelts in for trade only to be told that it wasn’t enough or, perhaps, he brought more than 50 and was taken advantage of. Bad business deals can lead to hurt feelings and often to war.

Now, once a month I open my art studio to the public for our First Friday’s Art Walk. Instead of talking about the 100 plus albums I’ve done, the 20 or so films, tours or media work I’ve done for at least half of the Fortune 500, I instead show people my humble electronics workshop. I point out to them how most of the items in my shop were discarded by someone else. I tell them about the tools I used to educate myself. I tell them what it is like to live on a $1 a day for food while sleeping in my car (yeah, I’ve had to do that too).

I finish by showing them photos of the workers assembling my products, the sales team that sells my products and I explain that hundreds of millions of people each and every day enjoy media made on my products. I tell my visitors that I’ve done nothing special and that they, with their young minds, are capable of doing so much more. I tell them that self actualization comes from building things and the satisfaction that comes from being a maker surpasses that of being an observer. I tell them to go out and “get busy”.

Anyone can do anything!

Lets pause for just a moment. I’ve had two previous professions that instilled in me a belief that anyone is capable of doing anything. As an Officer in the United States Army, I was taught to never ever ever ever underestimate my opponent. After all, history is but a list of people underestimating the opposition. Next, for a short time I was a high school teacher and I must say that the only thing that got me through the day was that belief that anyone is capable of doing anything if they want it bad enough. My job was to provide assistance to the ones that wanted it and entertain the ones that didn’t.

So, I was recently approached by several millennials that told me that my belief that anyone can do anything was “racist” and “smacked of privileged”. I did my best to try to make sense of the argument and I believe it went something like this: Of course a white male would believe that anyone can do anything because it is only true for white males. Telling a person of color that they, too, can achieve their goals is racist.

I want you to let that sink in a bit. Just like the Latin inscription on some arch extolling the virtue or necessity of some event doesn’t really translate 2000 years to a non-Latin speaker, “anyone can do anything” is now interpreted as a racist bigoted rant. I’ve also had to come to the conclusion that other words do not translate as well. Words like competition, struggle, victory, wealth & success seem to be getting lost in translation. These words may sound identical when used by both parties but have different meanings as I get the impression that when I say the word “competition” to a millennial they get the mental image of “fascism” in their heads. Competition, as well, is pure Evil.

People that can not communicate with one another have only war available to them to settle their grievances. This is why Civil War is inevitable as it is no longer possible to talk our way through our differences. If you do not believe me then go find a purple haired lesbian feminist and go have a conversation with her. She will quickly become puzzled and frustrated that her words make no sense to you and you will feel likewise. Common ground can never be achieved as what was once common isn’t anymore.

In the end, we think in words and it isn’t possible for you to think about concepts that you do not have words for. It is how we are hardwired. Going forward, it may be more productive to just scream into the wind as the two sides in this struggle can never come to any agreement and I am convinced that our war of words will soon become a very real war. I suspect, though, that everyone is about to understand what war is so at least we’ll have that in common.