Chris : The crux of things is picking your fight. Some words are not that important to me. Others are. So, I try to limit the number of words to go to war over. I don't ask anyone else to do the same. If they want to, great, but I am happy to do this on my own --because it matters. Not sure what anyone can expect of an historian, anyway. Indifference to word poisoning ? But I don't share your pessimism about the outcome. Words that have new meanings among many people now did not have those meanings in the past. Which is to say, you can't win if you don't fight, and if you fight well you can win. Hebrew was almost a dead language. The fight to save Hebrew seemed lost for good. Now it is the language of the state of Israel. Similarly with words. It has to matter to you, however, and it really does matter to me. No motivation and you have lost the fight before it begins. That is not an issue for me. All I want is the chance to fight in a public venue where it is possible to make a case that is actually heard by a lot of people. Change hearts, change minds. Sometimes change minds and change hearts. Billy --------------------------------------------------------------- 1/10/2012 8:25:40 P.M. Pacific Standard Time, [email protected] writes:
Billy, As I’m sure you know, for generations, the French have fiercely guarded their language against the horreurs anglais. I think even the haughty French may have started to give up. Language changes. I remember trying to read Beowulf in my school days. Yikes! And yes, the language of King James and Shakespeare is beautiful, but we just don’t talk that way anymore. Fight as you might, I am quite certain that the answer to your question , “ where does it stop?” is that it never will. I appreciate your purist notions, but alas, I fear that you may be charging at windmills like loveable old Don Quixote. Chris From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, January 10, 2012 8:58 PM To: [email protected] Cc: [email protected] Subject: [RC] Gripes about words My question simply is : Where does it all stop ? I have no idea of the exact count of words that have been hopelessly corrupted from their origins or common use sometimes for centuries, but it surely is a large number. We should cave-in to homosexuals and conceded the word "gay" ? I sure in heck will do no such thing. I am sick and tired of worrying about the words of approximately 20 Christmas carols, and also sickened when reading historical texts and there's the word "gay" and the next time I may need to discuss a book written in 1911 or a magazine article published in 1952, and must explain things to people who are clueless about how words change meanings over time --needlessly. The only published things that count are published in 2011 or 2012 and nothing else matters ? But this isn't just the Left, it is popular culture, aided and abetted by the media, especially entertainment. Why, exactly should I read today's Leftist meanings of "progressive" back into things I research about TR ? I can't discuss TR at all because he ran as a Progressive in 1912 ? Huh ? This, for me, is a professional matter, as a professional historian. Which is to say that in many ways the past is alive and doesn't die, its always there, always part of culture, and education, and it matters. My universe is ca 3000 BC to the present, and is far from being only the present. So I prefer to fight the current warped-Left and deny them, as much as possible, their use of heritage words. Way I look at it, they don't deserve even one word they have co-opted from the past. Nor do homosexuals ands feminists etc. I refuse to concede even a single word to them. This sometimes applies to the Right, too, needless to say. If I need to talk to such idiots, they are ( so to speak ) in my class and they receive a flunking grade for misuse of language, among other things. When I want to, I can be as arrogant as any sonovabitch teacher you can imagine. They don't teach you this in teacher school, but you learn it soon enough when you have your own classes to instruct. Try it sometime, then you will understand. Billy -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
