Come to think about it

I've written in this blog in the past about language usage. Someone who says, "It was like, you know, ummm" has not communicated anything. If tennis shoes and tacos are "awesome" then you have no language left to describe a great work of art. We use words to think with and if we are sloppy in our use of words, we will be sloppy in our thinking.

Now I want to turn to another misuse of language. This time its politicians (another favorite complaint). We need to be especially clear in our thinking about what we hear from these people. The best example of double talk is the language of Mr. Bush. He talks of victory and defeat as if we were in a classic World War II war. We have already lost in Iraq and yet he continues to speak of victory there. Finally some are speaking up and calling his hand on this. I'd like a reporter to ask him what victory in Iraq is. How will we know when he's achieved his victory in his war?

He and his people gave us a weakening of environmental standards they called the clean air act. They degraded our natural resources and called it the healthy forest act. They shifted the income tax burden to favor the super rich and called it tax reform. Clearly this these are people whose language is intended to mislead. We should be wary of them.

Sometimes reality and public will combined to force Bush to drop some of his Orwellian language. You never hear "stay the course" anymore. I don't think he's still using "cut and run" either.

The point in that earlier post was that we need to think critically because we can't take at face value what politicians tell us. We are used to thinking critically when we buy a car and we need to be equally as curious and analytical when we consider an idea.