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version seven. http://demongin.org |
Horse Stance
Classic Gin
Tuesday, 2005-09-27 | Classic Gin
I've found that most speech, public and private, is incredibly inaccurate.
I've also found that in many cases that this inaccuracy should be exposed and that the speaker responsible for uttering the offending, inaccurate speech ought to be berated or upbraided for having done so.
Finally, I've found that repeat speech offenders commit most of their offenses with the same few words. I've noticed that those words have, as their roots, either Latin or Greek (usually Greek by way of Latin) words. Towards that end, I've tried to evangelize; tried to spread the word about the correct usage of certain words. When I hear people using 'privilege', a word that is almost never used correctly (especially by students of philosophy), I'll stop them and say, 'I don't think you're using this word correctly.
'You see, if you break the word in two and look at its roots, you'll see that a privilege is literally a private law--when someone claims or bestows a privilege, he claims or bestows a private law, a private exemption or exception. So when you argue that Paul 'privileges' interiority, advising us to keep an eye to our thoughts because they are just as effective (i.e. capable of effecting change in the world) as our actions, you argue incorrectly. If you must use the word, you should say that Paul revokes the privilege of interiority; you should say that Paul lowers interiority to the level of externality or outward expression, depriving it of its unique status as a componnent of existence that is exempt from scrutiny'.
But few people listen. Mostly, I think they don't listen because they're being corrected. The trouble is that the majority of the people I meet are professional students. And, contrary to what you might expect from someone who tells the world that his occupation is learning, most students hate being corrected more than anything in the world. This is, again, because they don't understand what the word means. Most students, if asked, would tell you that a student is one who studies; a professional student is one whose professed occupation is studying. If you asked them what this word 'study' means, they might start to get snippy; if you told them that 'study' is the pursuit of knowledge and that knowledge is the sum total of a person's gained understanding or experience.
'If the pursuit of understanding or experience is what you tell the world you spend your time doing, should it matter how you come by that understanding or experience? You ought not be angry with me, I'm stimply helping you do your job--in fact, you should thank me.'
But they never do.
They might call it arrogance, they might call it rudeness, they might call it self-righteousness. Call it what they will, but there are certain words that are often integral to inaccurate speech and all I want to do is increase awareness of these decidedly fraught words.
Accurate speech is a sweet to the ears and pleasing to the mind; inaccurate speech is a fulminating poison to both.
