We’ve all heard the phrase, “like lemmings to the sea.” Yet the U.S. Department of State (DOS) recently underscored this phrase, raising eyebrows with an internal directive requiring its personnel to follow the crowd, becoming pop culture lemmings in the process.
Originally a description of animal behavior, “lemmings to the sea” is now an analogy for those who blindly follow something, or someone, to their own demise. But when one digs into the phrase’s origins, its meaning takes on an entirely new twist.
With the world in upheaval and diplomacy needed for the actual prevention of war, the DOS issued a memo signed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken directing DoS staff on the proper use of gender-neutral terms. According to the memo, “Modeling DEIA: Gender Identity Best Practices,” State Department staffers should avoid using inflammatory words such as “mother,” “father,” or “manpower.” The memo instructs staff to "increase understanding of gender identity and provide guidance on gender identity language and best practices that support an inclusive work environment,” further advising, "When speaking, avoid using phrases like ‘brave men and women on the front lines.’”
The world is sure to be a better place for all as DOS staff use gender-neutral terms while working with Iranians chanting, “Death to America!”
Cultural issues should not be mandated from fad to norm. Five years ago, pronouns on official signature blocks were just a fad. Then, like lemmings to the sea, they became the norm – albeit forcibly in most circles – when one lemming bought into the idea that the fad was real. They knew they had to jump off that cliff! And everybody needed to go with them! Meanwhile, the rest of the world looks on in amazement wondering how so many so-called “smart people” can be sold a lie.
Just over a year ago, the U.S. Navy put out an official (and very cringy) training video of two young smiling civilians advising Navy personnel how to make use of preferred pronouns. The same navy that defeated pirates, won wars and freed the world from oppression has now jumped off the proverbial cliff like lemmings into the pronoun sea.
But the lemming analogy takes on new meaning when its backstory is fully known. Lemmings are rodents, similar to muskrats, native to arctic regions. In 1958 Disney created a wildlife documentary entitled “White Wilderness” as part of its “True-Life Adventure” series. The film won the Academy Award for Best Documentary. Audiences were fascinated by close-up scenes showing masses of rodents running at the camera in waves as they migrated in great scurrying herds toward the sea. With reckless abandon the lemmings began throwing themselves off cliffs, many of them drowning in the waves far below.
The movie taught us that when the lemming population reached a certain point they would leap to their feet and rush to commit mass suicide as a form of natural population control. “A kind of compulsion seizes each tiny rodent and, carried along by an unreasoning hysteria, each falls into step for a march that will take them to a strange destiny … over they go, casting themselves out bodily into space,” the narrator explained. The movie shocked the world and the phrase “like lemmings to the sea” has become synonymous with people following blindly en masse to their own doom.
Do lemmings mass migrate? Yes. Do lemmings have population booms every few years? Yes. But do lemmings blindly rush into mass suicide plunges off cliffs? No, they do not.
A 1983 investigation determined that the lemming scenes were fabricated. A few dozen lemmings were placed on a revolving turntable and filmed as they tried to run on the spinning disk. Disney employees literally threw them off the cliff using tight camera angles to film lemmings falling to the waters below.
Despite its false origins, the phrase stuck, and blindly following the crowd is still likened to “lemmings to the sea.” Yet now that we know the whole lemming film was a lie, the phrase might actually be more apropos.
Think about it. The U.S. government, countless big-name corporations, stars and starlets in Hollywood, and social media sycophants everywhere, have fallen prey to the false notion that we need to avoid gender-specific terms and carefully use preferred pronouns. They’re all in, leaping before they look as they follow the masses! Yet they are following an absolute lie.
Science and common sense reveal that only two genders exist. Pronouns have a very specific usage in the grammatical sense. “He and she” don’t require explanation. “Mother and father” are absolutely acceptable in all venues.
But somewhere along the way, a progressive left fad became a norm. A fake narrative was created saying that if you abuse the English language enough, you will somehow virtue signal to the world that you are more understanding, more inclusive, more with it.
Someone somewhere threw some pronoun lemmings off a proverbial cliff and the left-wing world bought the lie and went with it!
The use of gender-neutral terms and preferred pronouns is really nothing more than virtue signaling. But we don’t have to play word games to show respect. Just tell the world you have no intention to live out a lie like lemmings jumping headlong into the pronoun sea.
To contact Phil or request him for a speaking engagement, go to www.rightsideradio.org. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News. To comment, please send an email with your name and contact information to Commentary@1819News.com.
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