On a related issue, Catholic Fundamentalism embraces considering the notion that words, if they are not living things, may reasonably be treated as such. Words can travel great distances over very long periods of time. They can come into our minds, change our behaviors, and can, thereby, be seen, for all practical purposes, as “alive”.
The most primitive word-lifeforms are single words. They, like one celled organisms, may be compiled to form vastly more complicated thought-beings that can either lead us closer to, or farther from, The Programmer and His Operating Instructions. Sometimes, words are strung together to lead us closer to He Who programmed us. More often, words are strung together to mislead and confuse those who take them in.
When seen as a type of “predatory beast”, we realize that such word-lifeforms leap off the printed page, and out of the airwaves, like jaguars from a hidden perch, and propelling themselves into our minds and taking up residence in the space they devour. Once there, some have the ability to claw away tendencies we have toward obedience. Oddly, the same people who worry obsessively about “animal rights” also are in favor of allowing unrestricted access to the most depraved words imaginable.
