to dominate politics
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Reply-To: Carl Guderian <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
When he was lucid, Christopher Hitchens wrote a funny column picking up
where Orwell left off, citing hilarious hackneyed and mixed metaphors,
such as "the fascist octopus has sung its swan song" and "the jackboot is
thrown into the melting pot." These gems were products of the "langue du
bois" (wooden tongue), a symptom of political rigor taken to absurd
extremes. My own favorite is "Death To The Fascist Insect That Preys On
The Life Of The People," not mixed but certainly colorful, the slogan of
the hopelessly inept Symbionese Liberation Army.
I don't have the article to hand now, but I don't think it mentioned
"politically correct," which is surprising since it's even more successful
than "taxpayer revolt" in redefining US politics. PC started in the 1930s
(I guess), used seriously by people who followed Stalin's mood as
unchangeable Holy Writ, and ignored by everyone else. The US right wing
resurrected it in the early 1980s on college campuses, via "independent"
(funded by R.M.Scaife) newspapers called "The $UNIVERSITY Review", and by
repetition made random professorial stupidity sound like systematic
brainwashing. It's worth a mention since that article missed this obvious
example. Hillary Clinton was right about the "vast rightwing conspiracy,"
but wrong about how and when to deploy that revelation.
Rightist language, like all propaganda, is insulting, simplistic,
hysterical and crafted from bad faith and, therefore, ripe for parody. If
"dozens of weapons of mass destruction-related programs" ("billions of
blistering blue barnacles?") is any clue, the Muse may be deserting the
Right that, like all barbarians, has become dulled by victory . Weaselly
business language is likewise a fat target. I'm personally sick of hearing
pundits from CNN Business and The Economist rabbiting about Europe
"needing" to "liberalize" its labor policies--i.e., to allow US-style
"firing on whim."
Had I but programming skill enough and time, I'd make a translator that
rendered news and other ordinary texts into the cant of corporate PR
droids, PNAC big swinging dicks or even classic Maoist slogans.
"Whole-heartedlly strive to leverage the liberation of Iraq!" Er...
A worthy and entertaining project is the systematic trashing of the
Right's cherished phrases. We should approach them like Autonomen,
Black-Bloc'ers or Motherfuckers do bank windows. The State of the Union
Drinking Game, which sadly I learned of too late, was brilliant. The
trigger phrases were obvious, but it didn't matter since you really won
if, by the end of the speech, you were too drunk to remember that Bush is
President. Devalue Right bromides as soon as they're uttered, by mockery
that sprays through the electorate like Doomjuice. High scores when an
important phrases becomes a public euphemism for masturbation, for
instance.
You get the idea.
Carl
Prem Chandavarkar wrote:
>
> >
> > An insightful interview with George Lakoff about the workings of
> > framing aka
> > strategical use of language in rightwing politics.
> >
>
> For a more general discussion on framing, language and politics see George
> Orwell's essay (written in 1946) "Politics and the English Language"
> http://eserver.org/langs/politics-english-language.txt
>
> Politics and the English Language
>
> George Orwell
>
> 1946
--
Games are very educational. Scrabble teaches us vocabulary, Monopoly
teaches us cash-flow management, and D&D teaches us to loot the bodies.
-- Steve Jackson
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