Language, not truth, has been the first casualty of the West's war against terrorism
by Terry Jones
It was interesting to hear Colin Powell accuse France and Germany of cowardice
in not wanting to go to war. Or, as he put more succinctly, France and Germany
'are afraid of upholding their responsibility to impose the will of the
international community'. Powell's speech brings up one of the most outrageous
but least examined aspects of this whole war on Iraq business. I am speaking
about the appalling collateral damage already being inflicted on the English
language.
Perhaps the worst impact is on our vocabulary. 'Cowardice', according to Colin
Powell, is the refusal to injure thousands of innocent civilians living in
Baghdad in order to promote US oil interests in the Middle East. The corollary
is that 'bravery' must be the ability to order the deaths of 100,000 Iraqis
without wincing or bringing up your Caesar salad.
I suppose Tony Blair is 'brave' because he is willing to expose the people who
voted for him to the threat of terrorist reprisals in return for getting a red
carpet whenever he visits the White House, while Chirac is a 'coward' for
standing up to the bigoted bullying of the extremist right-wing Republican
warmongers who currently run the United States.
In the same vein, well-fed young men sitting in millions of dollars' worth of
military hardware and dropping bombs from 30,000ft on impoverished people who
have already had all their arms taken away are exemplars of 'bravery'.
'Cowardliness', according to George W. Bush, is hijacking an aircraft and
deliberately piloting it into a large building. There are plenty of things you
could call that, but not 'cowardly'. Yet when Bill Maher pointed this out on his
TV show, Politically Incorrect, he was anathematized and the sponsors threatened
to withdraw funding from the show.
Something weird is going on when not only do the politicians deliberately change
the meanings of words, but also society is outraged when someone points out the
correct usage.
Then there's 'the international community'. Clearly, Colin Powell cannot be
talking of the millions who took to the streets last Saturday. The
'international community' he's talking about must be those politicians who get
together behind closed doors to decide how best to stay in power and enrich
their supporters by maiming, mutilating and killing a lot of foreigners in funny
clothes whom they'll never see. And while we're at it, what about that word
'war'. My dictionary defines a 'war' as 'open, armed conflict between two
parties, nations or states'. Dropping bombs from a safe height on an already
hard-pressed people, whose infrastructure is in chaos from years of sanctions
and who live under an oppressive regime, isn't a 'war'. It's a turkey shoot.
But then the violence being done to the English language is probably the price
we have to pay for cheap petrol.
Language is supposed to make ideas clearer so that we can understand them. But
when politicians such as Colin Powell, George W. Bush, and Tony Blair get hold
of language, their aim is usually the opposite. That's how they persuade us to
take ludicrous concepts seriously. Like the whole idea of a 'war on terrorism'.
You can wage war against another country, or on a national group within your own
country, but you can't wage war on an abstract noun. How do you know when you've
won? When you've got it removed from the Oxford English Dictionary?
When men in power propose doing something that is shameful, wrong and
destructive, the first casualty is the English language. It would matter less if
it were the only casualty. But if they carry on perverting our vocabulary and
twisting our grammar, the result will spell death for many who are now alive.
http://www.observer.co.uk/comment/story/0,6903,901052,00.html
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"Ivinicus factus sum veritabem diceus." ( I have become an enemy for speaking the truth ) St Paul!
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Mitayo Potosi
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