Old Hippie

Words have meanings. Words are how we communicate our thoughts to other people. Words are important and we often forget how important a word really is. Of course, a word is nothing without a meaning. Meanings are what is really communicated through words after all. If you use a made-up word to express something to someone else, your meaning will be lost if the other person isn't aware of the word. It remains nonsensical if either party doesn't know the meaning of the words you are using. Duh, right?

The English language is the most versatile language on the planet. It is easily adaptable to new technologies, new contexts and new spellings. It is littered with exceptions to rules and even exceptions to the exceptions. No other language has the ability to transform itself as easily, especially in regards to context, which is most often picked up in slang, eventually making its way as new meanings in the dictionary.

I love this about the English language, at least the Americanized version. Need a new word to describe something new, make one up. It's no problem and you can pick your choice of spelling. If it catches on, it will become known by all and Webster will soon recognize it in their publications. Technology uses this technique and is one reason why English is the preferred language of science and computers. Try to add new words to French or Spanish. Pretty hard and you mostly get words that sound sort of like their English equivalents. Dare you to try in Japanese or Chinese.

But politicians have brought words and meanings to new lows. Why would we expect otherwise from this group of people. Need to promote your party's spending plans? How about calling it a stimulus? Or even better yet, call it re-investment? That will get positive attention and make the sheeple think you are really doing something positive.

Trying to make a point that the economy is not as good as you think it should be? Call it a depression. It doesn't matter if it fits the economic definition of a depression. This is America and we will change the definition as we see fit, whenever it suits our purposes.

Let's call a bill to eliminate secret ballots for a union election "The Employee Free Choice Act". Never mind that there is no free choice being exercised in this bill. Quite the opposite, it eliminates your choice to vote on allowing a union in the workplace entirely. But that is irrelevant. The general public is oblivious to details, they only hear sound bites. So if the bill is totally misnamed, so much the better for the unions trying to force their way into a workplace.

How about forcing private businesses in radio and television to air ideas and attitudes and opinions that they do not agree with, advertisers don't want to pay for and their watchers and listeners don't want to see or listen to. Let's call that one The Fariness Doctrine. Sounds so grand, doesn't it. But who decides what is fair? Government, of course.

So much of this change of meanings can be blamed on political correctness. When a janitor was a janitor, the meaning of his title was fairly standard and known to most everyone. When he became a sanitation engineer, the meaning became less obvious and less standard. And politicians love disguising their real intentions behind high-sounding names that play well with the public.

Do not be fooled. You can call a pig a rose and vice-versa, but it doesn't change the true essence of either the pig or the rose. Words and phrases have meanings but you better not take those words and meanings at face value without digging deeper into who is using them first. When someone says turn the AC up, are you sure they mean to make it warmer or cooler?

Remember that sometimes bad means bad and sometimes bad means good.

OH