On 08/03/11 00:51, Jeffrey Race wrote:
So Steve's comment leads to some possibly fruitful
ideas.
The word itself is less the issue than the attitude
it conveys, which is relevant to us as professional
people involved in using and designing hardware
and software.
Frequent usage does not cleanse the word of its
history or offensive associations. Such logic
should be unacceptable to serious people. Lots
of people beat their wives; frequency of wife-
beating doesn't make it right or acceptable. It's
a human failing.
The only acceptable measure is conformity to a
rule--and not mob rule.
Ah, but language is a fluid thing, and what once was, may not
be in the future. Things evolve, and though I don't like the
way some words have changed their definition, what I think
about them may (will?) be completely irreverent 30 years from
now.
In this case casual use of this offensive term
proves not that the word is appropriate but that
increasing numbers of people don't care whether
they offend others or not. Just as they don't
care to take the trouble to speak proper English.
Often now you hear "like I do" rather than the
grammatically correct "as I do." It betrays a
slacker attitude, and it stands out like a sore
thumb when you travel abroad, as I do constantly.
It's easy to spot the Americans -- they dress like
slobs, are mostly overweight, and speak broken English.
It's pathetically sad, and I'm so sorry for my
countrymen. So that's why I speak up when I see
bad habits. Someone has to.
Again, proper English is transient. Look at the English of the
1700's, 1800's and 1900's. 1700's look fairly strange, today.
And yes, there is a slacker attitude among some people, as
it has ever been.
Specifically on the subject of language: it is
a medium of communication. The rule has to
"what maintains/improves communication?" If you
don't follow rules about meaning, and grammar, and
syntax, eventually you end up being mutually
incomprehensible. Look at what happened to Latin:
people were sloppy, but sloppy in different ways in
different areas, so you ended up with the mutually
incomprehensible Romance languages.
So I point to the use of the rude word as the sign
of a bad habit: not caring about precision, about
meaning, about other people. This bad habit
carries over into other domains of life, like dress
as I said, or like private and public finances. Look
at the present American financial catastrophe (worse
is coming): it came from a sloppy attitude toward
paying one's own, and one's country's, bills with real
income. The justification for paying by borrowing was
precisely "everyone does it." That's fatal. Never
utter that nonsense reason again :)
This is no joke. My daughter has attended schools
in many places in the world, but mostly Asia. We've
seen it up close; the competition is fierce and American
slackerdom (as seen for example in educational attainment)
is leading to ruin. (It's no better in England where
she finished high school.)
If you don't believe me, spend some time at a student
cafeteria at Stanford, Cal-Tech, Princeton or Harvard.
Determine the percentage of those eating there who
have epicanthic folds.
Hmmm. I'm not sure what you're getting at but I don't
think that human physiognomy has much to do with anything
useful in discerning the differences among the human race.
Are we to check for Simian lines, too?
--STeve Andre'
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