The title I chose to use is a portion of a Victor Hugo quote. Another quote I've chosen to set the stage for today's post is from Ernest Hemingway, who said "All our words from loose using have lost their edge."
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My friend Deb posted a thought provoking question this morning on Facebook. "When did the word "Liberal" become a slur? It got me to thinking about this and other perfectly good words with perfectly good meanings that we have attached negative connotations to and made to mean something, well ... mean.
Connotation is the meaning we attach to a word beyond its standard definition. The dictionary definition of liberal, for example, includes but is not limited to : favorable to progress, advocating freedom of the individual and their rights, liberties, beliefs and expression. Tolerant, and free from prejudice or bigotry. I'm not sure I can think of anyone who wouldn't want to be described that way. And just to clarify, it does not mean atheistic, tax and spend anti-military hippie socialist.
Maybe we simply don't have enough words...
Turning perfectly good words into slurs, pejorative terms, attacks... Some current favorites for use in attempting to demean a person or group include "liberal", "corporate", "religious". We've done such a good job of ruining the original meaning of liberal, in fact, that liberal folks themselves have by and large abandoned it in favor of the word "progressive" at least as it pertains to their world view. Another perfectly good word, by the way. Maybe we can leave that one alone.
It seems a shame to see a positive word go dark. It's kinda like a good kid gone bad...except in this case it's not the kids fault. They've been framed.
Perhaps we should put our heads together and make some new words instead of twisting the meanings of words that were doing just fine conveying their original definitions. It's not such a radical idea. We've come up with plenty of new words just in our lifetime. For example, what sort of look would you have gotten from someone in the mid 80's if you'd asked them if they had ever googled themselves? Go back just fifteen years and ask the first person you see if they'd like to see your selfie. Maybe they would also be interested in your blog post about fracking.
New words are constantly emerging, and I'm not even talking about the whole additional collection of gems found in the Urban Dictionary... So let's keep the creativity flowing and generate some more original nouns and adjectives instead of treating existing ones like linguistic bonsai trees.
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If you've read much of my blog to date, as the wise and discerning reader that you are, you've undoubtedly picked up on the fact that I'm not big on labels, generalizations & stereotypes. I do understand that labels serve a purpose and are sometimes appropriate and useful. But I will always bristle at their use to demean or otherwise attack an individual or group. Have I myself ever been guilty of this? Regrettably, yes. But I'll keep striving to upgrade my operating system. Mike 50.1 out.
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