Jeffrey, I agree with much of what you say about the downhill slide of language but I also recognize, like Steve, that such change is inevitable in society. I, for one, hate the fact the dictionary keeps add new words annually like ginormous, blogging and other similar atrocities. But, like so many bad habits, you can't really fix people unless they want to be fixed. The best alternative is to ignore them.
The main disagreement I have with you is that 'suck' is not a reasonable example of this trend. 'Suck' has been meaning the same thing to me and those around me (in MN) for the last 40+ years. And nobody I know, from 'crude' redneck friends to high level corporate execs, seems to think saying "that sucks" is in any way crude or vulgar. Perhaps that's just an example of how norms are different in different parts of the world and that a medium like the Internet (or a mailing list) brings different people together to clash (or meld, depending on your viewpoint). America has a history of tolerance for those with diverse backgrounds, for better or worse. From what you say it appears other parts of the world do not. Doesn't surprise me. Rob P.S. So people of Asian decent seem to like the school cafeterias moreso than other ethnicities? Strange. On Wed, 03 Aug 2011 11:51 +0700, "Jeffrey Race" <[email protected]> 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. > > 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. > > Specifically on the subject of language: it is > a medium of communication. The rule has to be > "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. -- http://www.fastmail.fm - Choose from over 50 domains or use your own _______________________________________________ Thinkpad mailing list [email protected] http://stderr.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/thinkpad
