That's it. It really is the end of the world this time. No joke. I listened to NPR yesterday and all I could think was "damn, I could really use bland report on strawberries."
I read Mr. Gorman's post from this morning and I wonder: do semantics really matter much anymore? The only that is worse than the stories we are being told is the stories that we aren't being told. I don't know that it is any giant conspiracy. I think there aren't enough pages in the newspaper. So what does it matter that the neo-cons are once again perpetrating grievous crimes on the English language. The vulgarity of their actions around the world far outstrip any petty linguistic crimes they commit here at home. At this point they could call anyone they disagreed with "poopy-head" and half the American public would stand up and cheer.
Our language has been usurped by the reactionary voices that surround us. Our language has corroded. We are not powerless to stop it, but the discussion must be moved to whole new venues. Perhaps we do have to destroy the village in order to save it. Perhaps the key is to blow up all language to the point that it is beyond communication. We could then gather together and try to name things properly again. This language commerce we participate in now only serves to obfuscate the real crimes being committed all the time. Let's blow up the language and maybe that will help.
Im so depressed I cant even punctuate
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2 comments:
I'm not sure that I agree with you that our problem is the destruction of language. Language, especially English, is a constantly evolving, moving, adaptive idea. It only exists in the people who use it. To wish us back to the good old days when people spoke and wrote "well" is to embrace a paternalistic and colonialist language that was a tool for the marginalization of everyone who was denied access to education and, hence, the language. I think that our problem is not that language isn't what it used to be but that we've lost sight of what it could be. We value volumes of words rather than quantity of words.
That being said, THANK GOODNESS that this JonBenet thing is finally getting the attention it deserves from the media. It has been over looked for too long!! They've been trying to brush it under the carpet by, burying it under all those stories from Iraq and Israel and Iran, but now, FINALLY, the people are getting what they asked for.
did i just say volume over quantity? ummm...i meant quality.
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