What strikes me is that in several fields, the pursuit, and expression, of novel ideas has … See Morebecome more fashionable than the exploration of fundamental ideas. To me this can be seen in law, language, economics and social sciences. A part of that is probably that it provides an easier path to publication, and career advancement. Unfortunately the effects are a loss of understanding of the core principles that make much of our society function.
In this regard, economics and law are certainly more critical than grammar. Novelty replacing principle in those areas isn’t just frustrating, or passingly amusing. It has eaten at our foundations. We have economists that can’t explain wealth, and Jurists that don’t understand the origin of law. They can each create a new system of thinking out of whole cloth and argue it’s value as equivalent to those systems that have evolved over centuries, and take themselves seriously while doing it.
Without a deep cultural understanding of the principles of these systems, we are doomed to fail in preserving them. The generations that formed the founding of this nation succeeded in bringing together the ideas of the declaratioin because the society of the time made those ideas the fabric of their interactions. Today’s fabric is TMZ and E!.
If we want to preserve 20-something hotties on drinking binges and extra-marital affairs, we are well equipped for the future. If it’s law, commerce and debate that we’re trying to hang on to, we are destitute.
Moe Lane
PG DeFreese
Victoria Coates
Daniel Horowitz
Dan Spencer
Ever hear of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis?
avgjo (Diary) Monday, July 5th at 11:48AM EST (link)It basically says that the language you speak affects the thoughts you can have about the world. If you have no word for cold or snow, how can you describe Alaska? The same if you have no words for concepts of freedom and liberty. That’s the lesson of Orwell’s 1984 Newspeak. It’s also the reason that Hitler, Stalin and other lovelies controlled what could be said in their countries, and why they coined new terms to demonize the opposition. It’s also the reason that things like ‘man-caused disaster’, which seem silly to many, are really so serious.
I took a political theory class last semester, the theme of which was principled resistance to tyranny; in it, I wrote a series of papers on this very subject. It is a very serious, but sadly, very neglected aspect of politics. Very neglected, that is, by all except the very ones we should worry about.
Ceterum autem censeo, Obamaecuram esse delendam.
It’s the morality, stupid.
I hadn't put a name to it...
f2000 (Diary) Monday, July 5th at 3:12PM EST (link)but I’ve heard the basics. I have heard (but don’t stand by it’s veracity) that there is no Indian word particularly suited to the english “Liberty” and of the associated difficulty of communicating the concept. It’s an interesting thought experiment, even if untrue.
You're identifying a big problem.
realskinny (Diary) Monday, July 5th at 1:06PM EST (link)Ignorance of the basics in academic fields can be blamed on the takeover by the Left. But it goes beyond this. In WWII one of our big advantages was the body of basic knowledge held by our personnel. The public schools of the 30′s and 40′s gave us the most literate army up to that time making the job of training much easier. The Germans and even the British had to spend months and funds training mechanics and even drivers while half the the Americans could tear down an engine and virtually all could drive a truck before entering the military.
We’ve lost all that. Socialist school graduates barely know the 3 R’s, let alone Grammar, History and Geography. When I was in school–the 1950′s–girls knew more about how a car worked than boys do today.
You're spot on, f2000
Fla Mom (Diary) Monday, July 5th at 1:14PM EST (link)Did you know that dictionaries used to be ‘prescriptive’ (like Noah Webster’s 1828 dictionary, still in print because it is so) but are now ‘descriptive?’ Yes, they used to tell you what was correct; they now tell you what people say, whether it’s correct in standard American English or not. Cuz, like, what’s ‘correct,’ anyway, you know?
Fla Mom
Diss heah grammah stuph reely gits ta me.
Kenny Solomon (Diary) Monday, July 5th at 1:28PM EST (link)Y’all know I’z a stickler fer writin’ rite ‘n all dat dere mess. But iffen our lil’ ones don’ git edumakated rite, weez gonna be up paddle’s creek with a ton of sh……….
On the other hand, things could be worse.
Our nation could be on the brink of a full-economic collapse, along with a violent jackbooted combined Marxist-Jihadi slam-down from within and without, due to a mass electorate so blind as to envision ‘hope’ as a true national policy and lovingly embrace those who would “fundamentally transform The United States”.
Oh wait………..
Naaaaaah…….. It’s all a mirage.
Must be my lack of sleep getting me this way, because for some odd reason, I keep being told to defer to our intellectual superiors, elected officials and media pundits ON OUR SIDE OF THE FENCE who continue to say “it can’t happen here” – plus – “we’ll get ‘em in November” and other useless rah-rah pap.
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.
Too bad it’s raining here today. I could really use some extra happy time at the outdoor long-distance fun place with some of my toys.
I know what you are saying and in some areas...
kyle8 (Diary) Monday, July 5th at 5:11PM EST (link)it hurts us not to speak with precision. As described above by avgjo.
But I would just caution you that you can go too far with this. Languages change over time, unless they are a dead language like Latin.
Some of the usages that might sound wrong, or vulgar to older people end up being used because they more efficiently communicate their meaning to a brad audience.
“Nothing works like freedom, Nothing succeeds like liberty”
Kyle
f2000
f2000 (Diary) Monday, July 5th at 7:06PM EST (link)My concern isn’t with the particular uses of words (through gradual drift, as opposed to politically motivated blurring, at least). It’s the understanding of how to use them to facilitate broader discourse. I think the two issues are as different as knowing all the makes and models of cars, and understanding the intricacies of turbos, tire selection, suspension setup and aerodynamics.
It is the communication of ideas to others that facilitates the development of institutional or cultural knowledge, not simply the understanding of that subject by a particular member. The loss of functional application of grammar (and by extension dialect and rhetoric) directly affects the ability of society to engage in discourse. The loss of competent discourse, at the extreme, results in us resorting to the all too common “Nazi Pelousi” and “McChimpy HaliBusHitler” not just as entertaining distractions, but as the centerpiece of our argument.
If I can’t construct a sentence longer than a handful of words, the probability of me successfully communicating a complex, logical argument are greatly diminished.