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Linguist explains libertarian language habits for English

by "\"Stop the Pledge of Allegiance\"" <pledge-of-allegiance@[EMAIL PROTECTED] Mar 18, 2007 at 01:12 PM

"Every free individual should share Ayn Rand's deep skepticism of plural 
pronouns.
Plural pronouns reek of socialism, schizophrenia, and slavery."


For more information enjoy Ayn Rand's novella "Anthem." It is set in a 
distant collectivist future, when every form and emblem of individualism
has 
been erased and society has reverted to a pre-industrial level. Its hero,
a 
scientist in a world where the pursuit of knowledge is a crime, discovers 
the meaning of individual freedom.
http://rexcurry.net/words.html

What ever happened to possessives? Why don't they spell Walgreens as 
"Walgreen's"? Why isn't Albertsons spelled as "Albertson's"? As an example

of capitalism, such stores should have marks of owner****p! Make it plain
to 
everyone: "This store is mine!"

Rulers love the first-person plural. As in the absurd comment "We owe it
to 
ourselves."

Libertarian language focuses on individuals and eschews fictional groups. 
That point was made in the following comments by David R. Henderson:

I don't know many libertarians who, in talking about the 1993 Clinton tax 
increase, say, "We raised taxes." They're much more likely to say,
"Clinton 
and Congress raised taxes." In other words, they put the responsibility on

the people who acted."

Henderson goes on to state that, in contrast, he knows many people who
will 
say, without the slightest hint of irony, "We bombed Nagasaki" or "We went

to war with Iraq." In other words, the clean language of individualism
that 
libertarians use in discussing domestic policy changes to the dark, 
obfuscatory language of collectivism in discussing foreign policy.
Henderson 
continues: "But certain principles apply to government action, and those 
principles don't become irrelevant in the government's dealings with the 
people of other countries. It's im****tant, for example, that a government 
not kill innocent people, whether they are in the country that that 
government governs or in another country."

That is a reminder of another British practice that was very recent:
"Public 
school" was a phrase used to mean what we would call "Private school." 
Government schools were "government schools" and "state schools."  It is 
terrifying to think that the example set by the government in the USA 
probably did a lot to destroy both British practices.

Professor Rex Curry coined "rexisms" related to the topic:
Never say "public school" and always say "government school" and "state 
school" instead.  http://rexcurry.net/schoolwords.html
Never say "public property" and always say "government property" instead. 
http://rexcurry.net/property.html
Everyone should refer to his social security number as "My socialist slave

number."
Eschew the abbreviation "USSR" and always say "Union of Soviet Socialist 
Republics" instead.
Never say the hackneyed shorthand for "National Socialist German Workers' 
Party" and use the full accurate name of the party instead.
Help educate others about the entire socialist "Wholecaust" (of which the 
Holocaust was a part): 60 million slaughtered under the Union of Soviet 
Socialist Republics; 50 million under the Peoples' Republic of China; 20 
million under the National Socialist German Workers' Party.

Libertarian speaking habits help reverse widespread ignorance about the 
actual meaning of shorthand terms and ignorance of history.

The book "Linguistic Engineering: Language and Politics in Mao's China" by

Dr. Fengyuan Ji is fascinating and more educational than any government 
school (socialist school). The Author is a lecturer in Asian studies at
the 
University of Canterbury, New Zealand.

When Mao and his socialist sycophants took control in 1949, they were 
determined to impose their dogma on everyone to create "revolutionary
human 
beings." An intricate instrument of ideological brainwa****ng was a massive

government program of linguistic engineering. They forced a new political 
vocabulary, imposed socialist meanings on old words, censored words that 
conveyed "incorrect" ideas, and mandated slogans, stock phrases, and
scripts 
that set "correct" linguistic mode to "correct" thought. The asinine
killers 
assumed that mind-numbing repetition would change reality and engender 
socialist beliefs, and make sick socialism work.

Dr. Ji's book provides wonderful comparisons to works by the linguist Dr. 
Rex Curry, author of "Learn the Language of Liberty" and "Liberty &
Language 
Secrets."

Dr. Ji's book explores the effectiveness of linguistic engineering by 
evaluating research on the connection between language and thought (an 
introductory chapter). In later chapters, Dr. Ji follows the roots of 
linguistic engineering in China. Her book exposes its origins in the early

development of socialism in China. She examines the frightening and unique

manipulation of language during the Cultural Revolution of 1966-1976. The 
book reveals the unprecedented types of linguistic engineering used in 
Mao-wor****p, exegetical principles, class struggle, the Great Leap Forward

(a phrase that exemplifies linguistic engineering), land reform, 
revolutionary violence, personal relation****ps, Public Criticism Meetings,

Red Guard activism, and the teaching of other languages (foreign
languages, 
including English). Dr. Ji re-interprets Mao's methods in the initial
stages 
of the Cultural Revolution, showing how he cynically manipulated language 
and ideas to trap and frame opponents. The work concludes with an
evaluation 
of the sad successes and frightening failures of linguistic engineering
and 
a description of how the socialists relaxed their dictatorial directives 
after Mao went to burn in hades.

The book is powerfully argued. It makes innovative offers to all those
with 
a love of liberty and language and the psychology of persuasion.
 




 1 Posts in Topic:
Linguist explains libertarian language habits for English
"\"Stop the Ple  2007-03-18 13:12:14 

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