"In a democracy (‘rule by mob’), those who refuse to learn from history will be the majority and will dictate that everyone else suffer for their ignorance."
With a proposal in New Hampshire to make home invasion a capital offense, some are advocating better alarm systems, etc., as preferable. I say, “Hooey!”
A better option to both, IMO, would be
…and an “instant death penalty” via .45 ACP or 12-gauge 00 Buck. Hey! Fair warning and all that… 🙂
One of the things I decry about society today is what technologically-driven democratization of the language we use has done to both the communication of and the formation of ideas. As subliterate Mass MEdia Podpeople Hivemind “newsertainment” has influenced our discourse into channels of the lowest common denominator, thinking itself is being dumbed down by the subliterate use of words.
Let me use an example that’s one of the least offensive: the conflation into one dumbed down, flat, colorless meaning of three separate words that once (and still for some, slightly more literate users of English) had usefully distinct meanings: vulgarity, profanity, obscenity.
Now, all seem to be very inappropriately subsumed under “profanity”. But distinct meanings can yield clarity in communication, contra the argument made in another forum that,
“Insistence on precise meaning can work both for and against clarity.”
Please, someone, explain to me in words that make sense *heh* how that statement can make sense. Certainly precision in word usage can work for clarity in thought, expression and transmission of ideas, but how does imprecision in word usage lead to clarity in any of those activities? (And that comment was from one who claims “advanced training” –*heh* not “education”–in semantics and linguistics; go figure.)
So, what have we lost when different classes of “cuss words” (and I have a predictable problem with that term as well ;-)) are all gathered together under one class, ignoring any distinctions between classes? Let’s see.
A vulgarity is simply a “low speech” variant of a “high speech” word. “Shit” for “feces” is a common example. Both have the same primary meaning. “Shit”* is more useful for conveying disgust with something or for relaying the value of a commodity in earthy, pithy, no-nonsense tone. It’s vulgar, although some neo-victorian bowdlerizers have crammed it into the “profanity” class and now perhaps most people–very, very wrongly–think of it as a profanity.
And what of obscenities? Titilating, stirring up passions with lewd, indecent, debasing expressions or images of a sexual nature can also be vulgar, but rarely profane. Why? Well, that depends on what profanity is, doesn’t it?
Rightly, profanity is that which debases, insults, degrades or slanders that which is holy, belonging to or set apart (for his use) by God. By conflating that which is merely vulgar or even that which is obscene with profanity, one degrades, debases, obscures real profanity, making it easier for those who would do so to actually profane that which is holy and point the finger at the vulgar and obscene and say, “No, what I’m doing isn’t profane; that is.”
But beside all that is the fact that blurring meaningful distinctions in language to the point of erasure is simply lazy thinking… and encourages even lazier thinking. That’s how politicians who advance anarchy and tyranny with complete disregard for what citizens want can call themselves “Democrats”. Useful and meaningful distinctions in word usage would have long since renamed them to reflect their real nature.
*BTW, I sometimes despair of folks who are offended by the use of the word “shit”. As one dear old saint in my church told me, she grew up on a farm and every time they turned around they were stepping in some sort of shit. It’s just a part of life. Besides, think of my former neighbors who were named after an ancestor who had good bowel movements. That’s right; their name was “Shatwell”–a past tense of “to shit”.
…and a few names and this is even more relevant today than it was 46 years ago:
Remember this?
“In a democracy (‘rule by mob’), those who refuse to learn from history are in the majority and dictate that everyone else suffer for their ignorance.”-third world county’s corollary to Santayana’s Axiom
“Refuse to learn from history”? Heck, the electorate, enstupiated by Mass MEdia Podpeople Hivemind Kool-Aid, is largely ignorant of current events! As a result, de Jouvenal’s observation is not so much a warning as a description of where we are headed:
“A nation of sheep will surely beget a government of wolves.”
Still, thanks to The Zero, we now have a new graphic illustrating the thinking person’s response to his policies:
And, apparently Joe Biden wrote the SOTU address… 😉
Bought an HP F4580 wireless printer to replace a 13-year-old HP “workhorse” inkjet. Like the printer. WiFi Protected setup didn’t work, though, so I went to the utility on the setup disk.
*arrrgghhh!*
If there is a circle of hell for the purveyors of rude software, HP will reside there for eternity. ALL I wanted to do was run the wireless connection wizard, but no! Attempting to cancel the installation of all the other HP crap canceled the wizard. *gag-puke-spew*
Now, I have to decrapify the computer I used to install the printer.
I like the product, but HP is working very, very hard to make me hate the company.
Yeh, yeh: this was one of those “I do these stupid things so others don’t have to” kind of things. Naturally, when I went to other computers to select this printer for others on the network to use, not one could “automagically” find and install the driver, so that had to be done manually, and no I did NOT allow the HP crap to install itself elsewhere (I didn’t need the wireless setup wizard at this point). But *sheesh*, could HP have made it more clunky to manually install the drivers? I don’t think so. What a PITA.
And now I have to dig out which of the drivers included on the CD is the TWAIN driver, so that folks can initiate a scan from their computers over the network, as well as simply print from their lappy or whatnot. All the drivers installed (along with all the crapware) on the computer I initially connected with a USB cable, but installing the printer driver apparently doesn’t include the full functions of the printer.
HP is really beginning to chap my gizzard.
Word from the White House–I suppose–via Robert Gibbs, The Zero’s mouthpiece,
“I think rational people have — have long ago, many when they first heard and saw the president, come to the conclusion of his citizenship.”
What’s not rational about asking The Zero to simply release his records like other politicians have? It’d cost him maybe $25 to, oh, perhaps $50 tops, to obtain a certified copy of his official birth certificate and then release it for public view. Less to release records of his college years, more than likely, by just sending his colleges permission to release records.
Instead, he and his minions have spent millions of dollars fighting to prevent release of his records. What in the world is rational about that?
Unless, of course, he has something devastating to hide.
UPDATE: on the fundamental irrationality of Gibbs’ argument, Nicole has this to say in comments:
What in hearing and seeing Obama would offer any proof that he was born in the US?
What proof indeed. The question is rhetorical, of course. Simply seeing and hearing a person is no proof of nationality or native birth. I have friends who sound like they might have been foreign-born and others who certainly look different to the great majority of Americans, but I wouldn’t adjudge them as foreigners based on appearance. OTOH, I know some Canadians who sound for all the world like North Dakotans an d look as “American” (whatever that means) as you or I.
Gibbs’ argument is not only irrational; it is stupid. And it seems no one at the presser called him on it. Is it any wonder I view the Mass MEdia Podpeople Hivemind as completely unworthy of my attention save as a class to mock?
Oh, and that derogatory “birthers” term so bruited about by the Mass MEdia Podpeople Hivemind? Simply a way of diverting attention from the real question: if there’s nothing to hide, why not release records at least as comprehensive as were demanded by that same Hivemind–and then lied about–of Bush II or even that his opponent in the 2008 election freely released? Why?
Rational people deserve a clear answer, not irrational derogation.
The Hivemind just cannot keep its narrative straight. Last week, Mike Evans said this:
Now, he says,
“Only this I can you tell you is 100 percent fact: that Neil never told me there was no birth certificate… I never talked to him.”
Is it any wonder that reasonable people have questions? Only the insane (or those who are highly invested in The Zero’s agenda) wouldn’t.
Nope. Not what you think. In fact, in order to remove current political “science” from consideration this time, I’ll simply ask:
Tomato: fruit or vegetable?
True fruits are developed from the ovary at the base of the plant’s flower and contain the seeds of the plant. Botanically a tomato is a fruit.
However, in 1893, in what I view as a purely political decision contrary to fact, simply decreed the tomato to be a vegetable in order to satisfy the bureaucrappic “needs” (read that as “desires”) of tariff collectors, since fruits were exempt from a tariff on imported foods and vegetables were not.
Now, can anyone else name anything in current events that might fall into this unscientific denial of reality that is being pushed as public policy? Hmmm?
Note: I originally, and very uncreatively, typo-ed “1983” for the date of 1893 above. You would have thought I’d at least make some sort of interesting mistake, eh?Oh, well. 🙂
*heh* (A follow on to About That “Literacy” Thing)
A brief discussion on Son&Heir’s naming of his new birds led me back to re-reading Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan (Yeh, I’m reading it online even though I have a copy within reach of my right hand, even as I type. ;-)) I’m not really reading it in order–just skipping and cherry-picking for now out of some of my fav passages. Here’s one, from the chapter, “OF DARKNESS FROM VAIN PHILOSOPHY AND FABULOUS TRADITIONS” that makes me think of much “thought” from the Mass MEdia Podpeople Hivemind, our wonderful *gag-spew* “political elite” and others who frame much of public discourse, from that on Anthropogenic Climate Panic to “racism”:
Nor are we therefore to give that name [philosophy–in general, reasoning to obtain knowledge of the physical world] to any false conclusions; for he that reasoneth aright in words he understandeth can never conclude an error:
Nor to that which any man knows by supernatural revelation; because it is not acquired by reasoning:
Nor that which is gotten by reasoning from the authority of books; because it is not by reasoning from the cause to the effect, nor from the effect to the cause; and is not knowledge, but faith.
Thomas Hobbes, where are you when we need you?
Imagine waking up with this next to your face. Sweet dreams!
In answer to a question someone asked the other day, “Who is more talented, J-Lo or Lady Gaga?” a Zen koan emerged:
“Which flies better, a turtle or a rock?”
We now return to twc’s regular curmudgeonry, disorganized mopery and observations on the passing scene.