The Old Testament’s Tower of Babel story is intriguing. No doubt, my interpretation of it and the preacher’s differ, but since my custom is to tell things the way I see them, which sometimes is the way they really are, I prefer my version.
In Genesis, chapter eleven, we are told, “ … the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.”
Folks got along fine, and the future looked prosperous. A main reason for this was that they all spoke the same language.
But folks back then were like folks are now: They couldn’t stand prosperity; they couldn’t leave well enough alone. So, they decided to build a huge city, and within it, a tower reaching all the way up to heaven.
Now, the Lord took umbrage at this mortal notion. After all, these people had a beautiful city, they were prosperous, and communication was efficient because there was only one language. But now they had the effrontery to build a tower reaching all the way up to His domain!
The Almighty had a cure for that. He made them babble. According to the scripture, the Lord said, “ … let us … confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.”
Needless to say, when the contractors couldn’t communicate, the Tower of Babel fell rapidly into a state of disrepair. Inability to communicate stops anything.
Without a doubt, if efficient communication had not evolved, there wouldn’t be a human being walking the face of the earth today. In my college courses, I use the “saber-toothed tiger” analogy to emphasize this point to my students.
In the earliest days of our cave-dwelling ancestors, these ferocious beasts had a field day devouring humanoids, mainly because their speech was limited to grunts, shrieks, howls, and gesticulations. In other words, if caveman Grogg saw a saber-toothed tiger stalking his brother Lurch, by the time Lurch figured out what Grogg’s grunts meant, it was too late. Lurch was lunch.
Finally, Grogg and his ilk agreed on a particular sound that had only one meaning: saber-toothed tiger. The mortality rate amongst cave folks descended appreciably. Efficient communication began to take hold.
Efficient communication has been a primary impetus for all the great advances society has made. But nowadays it seems that communication has reached its apex and is descending back toward Grogg’s grunts.
Instead of speaking one language, members of modern society are now obligated to speak a specialized, innocuous language that cannot go outside the parameters of political correctness, and, above all, must not offend anyone, even if what is said would prove beneficial to the potential “offendee.”
This muddled mix of meaningless multi-communication has become so fashionable that businesses do all they can to encourage it. For instance, if I call my bank’s information line to get an account balance, I’m asked if I want the requested information provided in Spanish, and if so I should “marquen dos.” How infuriatingly unpatriotic is this step toward a language confounded!
--Continued with Part II--
Jimmy Reed——
Bio and Archives
Jimmy Reed is an Oxford, Mississippi resident, Ole Miss and Delta State University alumnus, Vietnam Era Army Veteran, former Mississippi Delta cotton farmer and ginner, author, and retired college teacher.
This story is a selection from Jimmy Reed’s latest book, entitled The Jaybird Tales.
Copies, including personalized autographs, can be reserved by notifying the author via email (.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)).
