Abuse of Names as a Herald of Tyranny
The first ever political coup in the long ancient history of China was heralded by an incident in court involving abuse of names.
According to the Records of the Grand Historian (史记), not long after Qin Er Shi, the youngest son of the First Emperor of Qin, succeeded the throne by killing his eldest brother, one of his scheming ministers, who helped him usurp the throne, planned a political coup against him. Before the coup, the minister, Zhao Gao, devised a cunning scheme to test the waters. He offered Qin Er Shi a gift in the presence of all his ministers. It was a deer, but Zhao Gao insisted it was a horse. Naturally, the Emperor thought he was joking, and asked his ministers their opinions. Many of them, fearing the power of Zhao Gao, aligned with him and said it was a horse. Few of them called it like they saw it. Zhao Gao took note of all those who said it was a deer, and later disposed of them one by one. He then executed the coup and forced Qin Er Shi into committing suicide.
This historical event, like many others, became an idiom in the Chinese language, immortalized, as it were,, as a perpetual warning against the approach of tyranny.
The Defeat of Reason
In our own time, there have been many incidents involving abuse of names, but it only occurred to me recently that these events, like the ominous event in history long past, are also a herald of tyranny.
For what is in a name? A name is typically associated with a definition, which expresses the nature of a thing. The ability to name things is a cognitive activity that separates man from other living beings. In the Genesis narrative, man “gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field”. From a philosophical perspective, definitions are the foundation of logic and reason. When names are abused, our ability to understand the nature of things, that is, our rational and cognitive faculties, are necessarily impaired. As in gaslighting, its effect on the individual and the community may be slow and insidious, but ultimately terrible and tragic.
A few times already I’ve blogged about what I perceive to be the defeat of reason in our time. It seems almost impossible to have a civic and constructive dialogue. Important decisions that impact people’s lives are not made through a process of rational deliberation and consensus building, but through brute force, often in the form of top-down decrees, which dictate how people are to think, speak and act. In other words, we are no longer allowed to stand by our own reason and call a deer a deer, or conduct an independent investigation into the nature of things, but are compelled to abide by the will of another, or else forfeit our social and political lives.
Perhaps we ought to imitate the courage of Martin Luther in the secular sphere: “Unless I am convinced by clear reason, I cannot and will not submit, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience and reason”.
References:
- “Shiji.” Chinese Text Project. Accessed December 8, 2019. https://ctext.org/shiji.