Words Have Meaning. It's Time We Remember This. ~ #allornothing

The alien flew to the planet and grabbed some items in exchange for some candy corn. Pretty weird sentence is it not? It sounds like an alien made a purchase on a planet and used candy corn as the medium of exchange. I think we would all be in agreement on that statement. But what if I told you that by alien, I meant my neighbor, Jon. And by flew, I meant drove. And by planet, I meant convenient store. And by candy corn, I meant cash. So my neighbor Jon drove to the convenient store and bought some items using cash. Besides the act of purchasing something, these two sentences are drastically different from one another. The specific words I used were important to what you thought the story was about, because words have meaning.

Here's another one.

Jim received a letter about the local block party happening this weekend. He was invited to participate and contribute $20 to help with the costs. Jim was going to be out of town that weekend, therefore he decided not to chip in the $20 that his neighbors that were participating had donated. Therefore, Jim did not consent to the $20 donation. Jim was not required to pay the $20 even though he was living next door to others that did pay the $20.

Now see if you can spot the difference in this one.

Mingo was the first born daughter belonging to a family tribe in the Amazon. The tribe has an arrangement with another tribe where the 1st daughter of each family will be sacrificed in order to please their gods. At age 15, Mingo is set to be delivered to the other tribe for sacrifice. Mingo does not want to die, she does not consent to the sacrifice, she wants to live. But everyone in her tribe and the other tribe, say she has consented by way of being born into this tribe. Mingo kicks and screams all the way to the alter where she is sacrificed. Her tribesman rebuke her cries of mercy, stating that she has consented by way of birth. This is how it's always been, they remind themselves.

Did you catch the word I am alluding to? That's right: consent.

So what does consent mean?

From the Oxford dictionary:

noun
mass noun
Permission for something to happen or agreement to do something.
‘no change may be made without the consent of all the partners’
&
verb
[no object]
1
Give permission for something to happen.
‘he consented to a search by a detective’
More example sentencesSynonyms
1.1with infinitive Agree to do something.
‘he had consented to serve as external assessor on the panel’

Merriam Webster describes it as such:

WORDS AT PLAY
FAVORITES
Follow:
consent verb
con·​sent | \kən-ˈsent
\
consented; consenting; consents
Definition of consent (Entry 1 of 2)
intransitive verb
1
: to give assent or approval : agree
consent to being tested
Her father consented to the marriage.
2
archaic : to be in concord in opinion or sentiment

And in today's world, urban dictionary says this:

Consent
The achievement of willful acknowledgment, sexual acceptance and eventually permission (whether expressly stated or implied) by a female/male, to an advance made by a member/member(s) of the same/opposite sex.

So to summarize, consent simply means agreement. It means to say yes to someones inquiry. To say no to someones request or inquiry, would mean you are not giving consent. You wish not to relinquish whatever it may be that is being asked of you.

So where does consent usually come up? Well, if you have been paying attention to any media in the past year or so, sexual advancement consent has been ruling the day.

Example of non-consensual act: Jim walks up to Barbara and pinches her butt. She rebuffs and tells him off. She has not consented to Jim's sexual advancement.

Example of consensual act: Barbara winks at Jim. Jim motions to Barbara to sit on his lap. She does. Both parties are in consensual agreement to the acts.

The first example is unwanted touching from Jim on Barbara.
The second example is a mutually exclusive agreement that Barbara wanted to sit on Jim's lap and Jim was more than happy to oblige.

So ask yourself, can an immoral act (such as doing something against someones consent) ever be moral?

Can stealing from someone ever be moral?

Can rape ever be moral?

With all the talk lately about the #metoo movement and other things going on about consent, why is it when I say that I don't consent to the governments edicts, do I get laughed at? "Because I was born here", is what they tell me. And if I don't like it, I can move somewhere else.

If your kid was being bullied on the playground, would you want the bully to stop the bullying? Or would you be OK with the bully telling your kid "if you don't like being bullied, move to a different playground"?

Words have meaning. They are not superfluous to your whims, outcomes, or circumstances.

Either you believe in consent 100% of time, or 0% of the time. Be on the right side of history, consent to everything, matters.

Thanks for reading and Steem on.