Language and the Art of Politics, or how politicians misuse words

Well, a bit of a turn away from my gaming-related thoughts this week. As a grad student in a liberal arts field, the foremost thing that I always kept in the back of my mind was the need to be careful and specific in my use of words. Making an allusion to something with significance, or using such in a comparison, should be something we do with such full and accurate care that we are fully appreciating the meaning of that allusion.

Which brings us to the politicians who throw words out there, words with historical significance, words with meaning, without a thought to the application of that word in the context they're using it. Or, to rephrase: if you're going to call someone a Nazi, you'd better be fully prepared to back up your statement by demonstrating that the person you're calling a Nazi, or saying that their actions are Nazi-like, actually justifies the use of the word. There are no, repeat NO, politicians currently in the United States Senate or House of Representatives to whom that word applies, nor are there any actions taken in the past decade by any of them that would warrant the use of the word Nazi in any sort of contextual, factual sense.

But that hasn't stopped the idiots -- pardon me, politicians, leaders of this great country -- from throwing around the word to describe one another or one another's actions. Calling a Senator "a Nazi" or saying that the President's actions are "like something a Nazi would do" is beyond disgusting, it's also intellectually bankrupt and should be called such by every journalist and rational, thinking person out there. Of course, that never happens either - but our failure as a society to recognize the misuse of words is another article. No, these are supposedly intelligent people who are doing this, and because they do it, we need to stop and think: why would they knowingly (hopefully knowingly, or else they aren't smart enough to be there in the first place) use a word like "Nazi" that doesn't apply? It's really simple, and it's equally as insulting as it is simple: the word has an emotional connection, and the politicians are more interested in stirring those knee-jerk emotional reactions than actually being factual in their allusions or even remotely fair in the same. They take advantage of the fact that the public, as so many, many studies shows, is exceedingly ignorant about things like history, current affairs, the names of the leaders of the country, geography, etc. They know far too many of the public are going to hear "Nazi" and react -- but without knowing why they're reacting, just that the word has a bad connotation to it. The fact that they, the politicians who lead us, knowingly use words like this one deliberately and specifically to take advantage of the public's ignorance is and should be highly insulting -- but of course, the same people who don't know the full meaning of the word, don't fully understand all the very potent and truly evil depths of that word, aren't going to realise that they're being taken advantage of in a very insulting and demeaning way.

And that, my friends, is the greatest tragedy of all. In a society that's more interested in the comings and goings of Hollywood starlets and in calling sports figures "heroes" (another misused word), where more than two-thirds of college students can't even find Iraq on a map, the tragedy isn't that smart politicians are taking advantage of the public ignorance -- it's that the public is as ignorant as it is, and doesn't seem to even realise why that's bad.

Next time, a comment on culture, the word "hero" with a thought toward this article, and why the many unnamed souls who have won the Congressional Medal of Honor for their actions are "heroes" and exactly ZERO sports figures are "heroes" for their sports careers. But again, that would also require us to think about words instead of just using them lightly... more on that next time.