They appoint “inside” meaning to ordinary words or use an exclusive vocabulary that requires a certain level of membership to acquire and use. They can come to gain control over intimate matters and individual privacy.
In the Phantom Toll Booth (by Norton Juster, Jules Feiffer; Dell Yearling, NY, © 1961 ) Milo, Tock, and Humbug meet a dirty bird name The Official Word Changer” that purposely changes the meaning of their words around on them to have a different meaning, such that they can’t even ask a simple question. This may seem far-fetched but cults do this as well. For example, are you guilty of materialism? You may be if you own property, or love the Vatican or Israel, or even believe in American sovereignty. This is at least true in the New Age cult, and if you think that one’s bazaar you should hear how they define “rainbow”.Our Church equates duplicity of speech (the name game) with holding a double identity:
The chaste person maintains the integrity of the powers of life and love placed in him. This integrity ensures the unity of the person; it opposed to any behavior that would impair it. It tolerates neither a double life nor duplicity of speech, Cf. Mt.5.37.This is indeed a serious sin because the only reason to cloak speech or who you are, is to deceive others; and deception of this kind even hurts oneself as it “impairs” the “unity of the person”. Yet how much more is the violation of privacy? As our Church teaches:
Cat 1883: Socialization also presents dangers. Excessive intervention by state can threaten personal freedom and initiative. Then teaching of the Church has elaborated the principle of subsidiarity, according to which “a community of a higher order should not interfere in the internal life of a community of a lower order, depriving the latter of its functions, but rather should support it in case of need and help coordinate its activity with the activities of the rest of society, always with the view to the common good.Our Church doesn’t oust individual rights, but actually sees wider that the needs of one affect the needs of all, and no man stands alone. Yet even so this call to greater communal vision doesn’t suspend the rights of the individual because if the community harms the health and well being of a member they harm their own future and effectiveness. This is why cults end up one of two ways- they either (1) reform gradually over the years and eventually lose these unhealthy teachings and replace them with those more in line with our Church, as the Protestant world has done or (2) they collapse in upon themselves with sometimes painful ends. We have seen far too many of these through Hitler, Stalin, Moe Say Tong, Manson, and Koresh, which are just a few that have undermined privacy for the “needs” of the state/community. Because they ignored the needs of individuals, this folly has led to tragic ends and ultimately to the loss of many innocent lives. Yet we do not need to follow in these footsteps, nor will we if we are aware of these risks and seek to overcome these in our own communities.
