Equity: A Perversion Of Meaning
"The term 'equity' describes this type of ownership in English because it was regulated through the system of equity law that developed in England during the Late Middle Ages to meet the growing demands of commercial activity. While the older common law courts dealt with questions of property title, equity courts dealt with contractual interests in property... Contract disputes were examined with consideration of whether the terms and administration of the contract were fair—that is, equitable." - Wikipedia
The Two General Meanings
The term Equity is used commonly in business and finance to represent the amount of Ownership someone has in a company or business. More specifically, Equity is the amount of ownership retained over Assets once Liabilities (Debt) have been subtracted (Equity = Assets - Liabilities). This applies to most forms of asset finance, from businesses and corporations to homeowners and automobile buyers. This is by far the most common meaning for the word, at least in the modern vocabulary. [1]
The second meaning is somewhat more broad. Generally speaking, Equity refers to rather something is "fair" or "impartial." This usually is with regards to the legal system, where the word "justice" becomes associated with the word. It had its start in English contractual law, but has since grown beyond that specific English court system. [2]
Though ownership and fairness would not seem all that related, the term meaning ownership was born out of the contractual law system using the same term. Effectively, the English equity courts would determine if a contract was fair and impartial in it's execution, if it was "equitable." Though there are differences, it is not entirely incorrect to say that Equality and Equity are pseudo-synonyms with each other. Particularly with the second common meaning of the word, the terms would both overlap one another in several different ways. In more simple terms, Equality means things are the same, while Equity means things are fair.
Remember these terms, they will be important later on. Especially the latter term of Equity meaning Fair.
The Road To Perversion: What Is Fair?
It is common now to hear Leftist, Progressives, Socialists, and Neo-Marxists say that, "equality is no longer enough, we need equity under the law." In Sociology, it is taught, as a matter of fact, that equality is no longer sufficient to deal with supposed injustices and that what is needed is a system of equity. Further still, more and more radical stances, opinions, and legal propositions are being made in the name of "equity," not equality. The general consensus among those on the Left is that equality is something that was sought in the past, but, is no longer adequate to fit their political agenda. What they seek now is a system of equity, a system of "fairness, justice." But what is "fair and just" to those on the Left?
Look at the graphic above, which is supposed to be an example of equality (the left panel) versus equity (the right panel). It is supposed to mean that in an "equitable system," the smaller child has more boxes to stand on. What is implied, however, is that the box was taken from the taller child and given to the shorter one. Would you consider that fair? Perhaps in this one case, but what about in the wider context of society? [3]
More and more, it is becoming obvious that Leftist are using the term "Equity" to mean the forceful redistribution of assets, positions, capital, and power from those deemed "privileged" to those they deem worthy, those they say are "oppressed." This is a cornerstone of Neo-Marxism, also sometimes referred to as Social Marxism or Cultural Marxism. The thought process effectively states that an impoverished, white male would be more privileged than a wealthy woman of color, simply because he is a "white male." This is but one example of how the system of "Oppressor/Oppressed," as it is common referred to in Neo-Marxism, can be exploited. Indeed, there are practically an infinite number of ways that supposed injustices can be used to justify the forceful redistribution of "privilege." It is, effectively, a victimhood complex taken to its fullest extent.
This begs the question then, what is fair? To a rational person, or even just a sane non-socialist, fair would never equate to the forceful redistribution of "privilege," wealth, or property. Such a person would reject such principles as wholly unfair, at least on a large scale. The issue is that Leftist almost never approach such an argument rationally. With few exceptions, Leftists approach the argument of "what is fair" from an emotional angle. To the Left, the ends justify the means. As an example, they are more likely to think of the one impoverished child they helped, not the 10 other people whose lives they ruined getting there. This goes for most facets of their ideological beliefs. It is this approach from emotions, not rational logic, that alters and perverts the meaning of the word "fair."
This is not entirely new, either to this time period or to the Left. For centuries, the Church (meaning both the Vatican and the off-shoots from it) used these appeals to emotion to alter what the meaning of the word "fair" was, among many others, to fit their end goals. Monarchs and Dictators, both old and new, also used these appeals to emotions to achieve the same or similar goals. The Left is just unique in how rapidly they have altered, perverted, the meaning of the word.
Exactly when was the Leftist-perverted meaning of the word "fair" introduced widely? I must admit, I do not know, as trying to research this is not as easy as it sounds. However, I can make some rough assumptions based on my knowledge of the evolution of the Left's ideological systems. I would make the rough guess that the altered meaning of "fair" became more widely used no less than 10 years ago, in the late 2000's or early 2010's, as the Social Justice-Progressive movement was ramping up their advocacy, education, and political efforts. However, it is possible that the meaning of the word became more widely used in the 90's when the previous wave of "politically correct" advocacy hit college campuses before dying out, at least until its reincarnation in the 2010's. It is possible, and perhaps quite likely, that the perverted meaning of "fair" came into being long before this time frame. Perhaps back to the 30's with the Frankfurt School, perhaps further back to the foundational crafting of Marxism in the 1800's, or even before. An in-depth study may reveal this, but ultimately what matters is when the altered meaning became widely used or became the dominant meaning for the word in a non-business related sense. This has already occurred and represents one of the great shifts in meaning for a word.
Equity: Contradiction Of Meanings
How is it then that the word "equity" can mean both "ownership" and "redistribution?" The answer is, it cannot. It is a contradiction of meanings. The word meaning associated with ownership arose from the use of the word in English contractual courts, long before the Leftist meaning for the word became widely used. It is this basic contradiction for the usage of the word that shows the alterations that have been made to it over the past recent years.
This represents a fundamental concern, as what should happen if the Leftist meaning for the word became the only acceptable usage of the word in common usage? The term is heavily used in business, law, finance, and accounting to mean "ownership" or an equivalent. Any large scale change to its meaning in a business sense could have serious consequences. What would happen if the Leftist meaning became the singular meaning, but these terms were not changed for its business associations? Would it then mean that the assets in a company, not held in debt, are not owned, but are instead to be redistributed? What would happen if this became the dominant view of society at large? This may sound like fear mongering, but the Left has gained a notorious reputation for altering the meanings of words, specifically with the goal of societal change in mind. When this occurs, any previous meaning of a word becomes verboten, forbidden, and the Left will not cease in their attempts to purge any past meaning of a word from common usage.
Should this occur, with no new substitution term used for business and law, this would represent a horrifying shift in the whole meaning of a word with potentially severe consequences. Businesses, and specifically the individuals and/or stockholders who own equity in the business, could face having their "ownership" of the entity be viewed as "redistributable." This is something already demanded by Leftist, making this prospect all the more likely to happen should the perverted meaning of "equity" become the dominant meaning entirely. What about for individuals who own houses and cars, who are said to have equity invested in both, what should happen to them with the new meaning? In theory, any private property owned by individuals could be viewed under this new system of "equity" as being redistributable. Again, this is a goal sought by the Left, making this prospect all the more likely to happen.
Stop The March Through The Dictionary
In order to stop the Left's "march through the dictionary," people must stop recognizing the new, perverted meanings of words the Left creates on a near-daily basis now. Naturally, most of their nonsensical terms go nowhere and, thankfully, die quietly. However, where their terms stick it can create chaos and confusion, and lead to ever more uncertainty to the meaning of a word. Uncertainty which is solved by the Left promoting their term as the only authoritative meaning for the word.
By controlling what the meanings of words are, the Left is able to grow their own power and influence in wider society. This is very much so a pattern recognized by Orwell in his infamous 1984, with its "Newspeak" being the creation of the state designed to utterly and unilaterally control the thoughts of the people. This idea has precedence in reality, as it happened in both the Third Reich and the USSR, particularly under Joseph Stalin. The modern reincarnation of this is today's modern Leftist, which includes Progressives, Socialists, and Neo-Marxists.
Their attempts to control the dictionary must be stopped. Their altered and perverted new meanings for words and their attempts to change the words associated with meanings must be rejected. All efforts must be made to hold onto the former meanings of words as the Leftists try to have those former meanings purged from society.
Failure is not an option with regards to this. What is at stake is society, specifically a free society. If you do not wish to live under an authoritarian government in an oppressive Leftist society, you will do everything possible to stop the Left from having control over the dictionary. Over the very basic meaning of every single word we know. The stakes could not be higher.
What will you do to stop the Left's march through the dictionary?
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Special thanks to @Luculent for bringing this topic to attention for me! I hope he agrees with what I wrote here in regards to how this topic first came to light, thanks to his post. [4]
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equity_(finance)
- https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/equity
- https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/625404/equity-vs-equality-what-is-the-difference
- https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1203403820037308416