I have always hated the words traitor and treason. When I think of them, I see military firing squads and bodies dangling from the gallows. I see Joe McCarthy sitting in a wood paneled room on Capitol Hill. I see bodies in mass burials. I see faces hollowed out by torture. I see shuffling dissidents exiled to the margins of society. There is no way to speak traitor and treason without venom in the voice, for the simple reason that the punishments for either are so high.
Traitor and treason are words favored totalitarians, tin pot dictators and vicious bureaucrats because they are so vague. They require only the demonstration of "aid and comfort to the enemy" whatever comfort means and whoever determines the enemy. Traitor and treason are lazy words that allow hatred and distrust to become a force of tyranny. Traitor and treason are institutionalized guilt by association--they are the words used to erect walls between people, preventing us from ever gaining an understanding of those we disagree with.
Traitor and treason are the blunt tools of nationalism and exclusion. How can anyone betray their nation or their cause unless it was first demanded that they follow their nation or cause exclusively? Traitor makes others into enemies, and dialogue into into treason.
At some point, when misused repeatedly, we must ask ourselves if a term or a concept is partly to blame--that the words traitor and treason are enabling our worst selves--legitimizing our hatreds and fears in veil of misplaced justice
Traitor and treason are the enemies of reason, justice and peace.