MARTINS OLOJA FROM GUARDIAN
That polymorphous word, cabal has cropped up again. And those deploying it know that there is power in that word — cabal. They have been manipulating the word to bend minds and win hearts in this land of the gullible. They want to confuse us with the word again. Even members of the ruthless cabal are calling people cabal – just to deceive and get to regain power, for us the young ones, let’s re-examine to explain the classic called cabal.
Ordinary dictionary defines it as a secret political clique or faction as in “a cabal of dissidents.” Another one would claim a cabal is the contrived schemes of a group of persons secretly united in a plot (as to overturn a government). Also, a group engaged in such schemes: club, group.
Cabal is classically associated with a group of five ministers in the government of England’s King Charles II. The initial letters of the names or titles of those men (Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley, and Lauderdale) spelled cabal, and they have been collectively dubbed as the “Cabal Cabinet” or “Cabal Ministry.” But these five names are not the source of the word cabal, which was in use decades before Charles II ascended the throne. The term traces back to cabbala, the Medieval Latin name for the Kabbalah, a traditional system of esoteric Jewish mysticism. Latin borrowed Cabbala from the Hebrew qabbālāh, meaning “received or traditional lore.” The magical word is now associated with conspiracy, crew, gang, Mafia, mob, syndicate, ring, clique, etc. There is one classic example of its use for understanding: ‘No one can seriously believe that decisions taken by a cabal of about half a dozen machine politicians, behind closed doors, amounts to democracy’ (From the Hansard archive).
Even it is associated with professional associations: ‘Here, too, the issue had been one of ‘publicness,’ with a supposedly voluntary charity having come under the effective control of a small cabal of surgeons’: (From the Cambridge English Corpus).
Even its negative use has spread to demonisation of the media: ‘This includes treating the media entirely as a political cabal and failing to acknowledge its role in publishing truthful information that is indispensable to a free society and that allows markets to operate transparently.’ — Jeff John Roberts, (Fortune, 12 Jan. 2023). ‘Not everyone is cowed by the hypocritical criticism from a cabal of press and publicists.’(—Scott Feinberg, The Hollywood Reporter, 7 Dec. 2022)
Even presidential palaces are being associated with its use: Conspiracy theories were fanned, including that voting by mail was rigged, that the Black Lives Matter movement had ties to witchcraft and that Biden was beholden to a cabal of socialists: (I—Will Weissert, Chron, 7 Mar. 2021). Flynn and Powell have both promoted theories linked to QAnon, a sprawling conspiracy movement united against a nonexistent cabal of devil-worshipping pedophiles—Adi Robertson, The Verge, 8 Jan. 2021). The hearings cut through the lies, conspiracy theories and political theater around the Big Lie, revealing a cabal of Trump lackeys bent on stealing the 2020 presidential election (—Lorraine Ali, Los Angeles Times, 4 Dec. 2022).
Another explainer puts it so simply: A cabal is a group of people who are united in some close design, usually to promote their private views or interests in an ideology, a state, or another community, often by intrigue and usually unknown to those who are outside their group. The use of this term usually carries negative connotations of political purpose, conspiracy and secrecy. It can also refer to a secret plot or a clique…
The term is frequently employed as an anti-Semitic dog whistle, as evidenced both by its Hebrew origin and by its evocation of centuries-old antisemitic tropes.
The term cabal is derived from Kabbalah (a word that has numerous spelling variations), the Jewish mystical and spiritual interpretation of the Hebrew scripture. In Hebrew, it means “reception” or “acceptance,” denoting the sod (secret) level of Jewish exegesis. In European culture (Christian Cabala, Hermetic Qabalah, it became associated with occult doctrine or a secret.
It came into English via the French cabale from the medieval Latin cabbala, and was known early in the 17th century through usages linked to Charles II and Oliver Cromwell. By the middle of the 17th century, it had developed further to mean some intrigue entered into by a small group and also referred to the group of people so involved, i.e. a semi-secret political clique.
Followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory use “The Cabal” to refer to what is perceived as a secret worldwide elite organisation who, according to proponents, wish to undermine democracy and freedom, and implement their own globalist agendas.
Some anti-government movements in Australia, particularly those that emerged during Canberra’s response to the pandemic, that Scott Morrison’s secret ministerial appointments were evidence of what they said was happening all along – a “secret cabal.”
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