For the record: while I would love it if you did smash the “like” and “subscribe” buttons, and all the rest of the things that you are all familiar with, the title of this post is not a literal call to action.
Imagine if you were to say the title of this post to someone today. Most anyone who has spent any time on the Interwebs or on the socials will understand.
If you were to say the same phrase to someone 15 years ago, you’d get some blank stares. Although the individual words make sense—the concepts of “click” and “subscribe” exist as their current, intended meanings—not everyone had had significant exposure to “like” and “subscribe” buttons in 2010.
Then imagine saying the same phrase to someone 40 years ago. Not a single person will have any idea what you’re talking about. For one thing, they only know “like” as a transitive verb; the word loses meaning without a clear object. For another, “subscribe” is something they would do to set up delivery of physical newspapers to their house. Finally, “clicking” is something you do with your tongue.
A very few computer nerds might make the connection to pushing (or “clicking”) keys or buttons. However, they would almost certainly be unfamiliar with touchscreens or freely moveable on-screen cursors, so they might start looking around for physical buttons labeled “like” and “subscribe”.
And now, try to imagine the interaction if you said those same words to someone from 100 years ago. They would look at you as if you were crazy. They would recognize the individual words, but the phrase would lack any meaning. You might as well say “banana twilight or seventeen open red”.
If you haven’t taken the time to watch the Wesley Huff-Billy Carson “debate”, I highly recommend you treat yourself1. I put the word in quotation marks because it was a “debate” in the same sense that a knight on horseback might have a “jousting match” with a 3-year-old.
Carson showcased the very worst of modern Western self-proclaimed intellectualism. He combined supreme, over-confident arrogance with utter lack of understanding or even basic knowledge of facts. When this became too obvious to ignore, he got flustered and attempted to misdirect by spouting incoherent woke accusations of “patriarchy!” And finally, he fled the field (claiming to be late for a more important meeting) but not before taking an impotent parting shot which said nothing but used a lot of pretty words to do it; which didn’t stop him from declaring a “mic drop” on his way out the door.
If anyone had a worse showing, it was debate host Mark Minard. I’m not familiar with Minard’s other work—apparently he is a successful author, speaker, and entrepreneur, and more power to him in those pursuits—but during the debate, he appeared to struggle to string together sentences of more than a few words.
Perhaps the most surprising idea expressed by Minard was his apparent confusion as to why things that are written in the Bible might need to be placed in context and explained for the modern audience. After all, Minard argued, if the Bible expresses the words of an all-powerful, all-knowing God, then God should have been smart enough to express them in ways that we would understand today—without requiring any explanation.
He might as well have complained that the Old Testament wasn’t written in early 21st century American English. How inconsiderate of God to use ancient Hebrew, which doesn’t even use the Latin alphabet! How are we even supposed to read that stuff? Minard appeared to consider this a direct and personal failure on God’s part.
(Carson was quick to jump on this opportunity to veer off course, naturally—eager as he was, by then, for any change of topic that might take the heat off of his own fragrant inadequacy.)
Considering that a phrase in common usage today would have been largely incoherent a mere 40 years ago and completely incomprehensible 100 years ago, it should not be surprising that writings from 2,000+ years ago—even if translated by the best linguists—still require commentary and contextualization. And even then, the words need to be studied carefully to glean the insights contained within the literal meanings.
Credit to Huff for remaining ever-patient and responding calmly and professionally.
If you enjoyed this article, if it made you think, and/or if you know someone who might like to read it—please treat yourself by hitting the like and share buttons!