The great economist, Dr. Walter E. Williams, died today (may he rest in peace).
Some
25 years ago, he used to debate a liberal civil rights activist named Claude Lewis on a
local news show in Philadelphia. On one occasion, Lewis referred to Williams as
“African American.” Williams replied, “I’m not African American,” and
laughed in his distinctive deep-throated way.
He
went on to give a brilliant off the cuff history of the Euphemism Treadmill as it applied to him.
He said he used to be
colored. Then he was a negro. Then he was black. Then he was African American.
He told Lewis that he stopped at black and decided to get off the merry go
round there.
It was delightful and
illustrative.
This
hypersensitivity to language, where euphemisms themselves become antiquated and
considered rude in favor of other euphemisms – becomes downright Orwellian. And
it is worse now than it was even when Walter Williams exited the merry go
round.
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Examples abound. The
word ‘toilet’ fell out of favor because it sounds rude. But it was actually a
euphemism for older words. This is why we now have bathrooms with no baths,
restrooms with no places to rest, and powder rooms with no powder. We also have
generic ‘facilities.’ What confusion for students of English.
Here
is a helpful section from Wikipedia with more detail about this very example of
the Euphemism Treadmill:
Frequently,
over time, euphemisms themselves become taboo words, through the linguistic
process of semantic change known
as pejoration, which University of Oregon
linguist Sharon Henderson Taylor dubbed the “euphemism cycle” in
1974, also frequently referred to as the “euphemism treadmill“.
For instance, toilet is an 18th-century
euphemism, replacing the older euphemism house-of-office, which
in turn replaced the even older euphemisms privy-house and bog-house. The act of human defecation is possibly the
most needy candidate for the euphemism in all eras. In the 20th century, where
the old euphemisms lavatory (a place where one
washes) or toilet (a place where one dresses)
had grown from long usage (e.g. in the United States) to synonymous with the
crude act they sought to deflect, they were sometimes replaced with bathroom (a place where one bathes) washroom (a place where one washes) or restroom (a place where one rests) or even by the
extreme form powder-room (a place where one
applies facial cosmetics). The form water closet, which in
turn became euphemised to W.C., is a less
deflective form.
George Carlin did a routine
tracing the history of ‘shell shock’ (WW1) to ‘battle fatigue’ (WW2) to
‘operational exhaustion” (Korea) to ‘post traumatic stress disorder’ (Vietnam).
This language game is also a
way for smug, Pharisaic people to show off their sense of superiority to
others. I remember when the word ‘Neanderthal’ changed pronunciation, and
anyone who pronounced the ‘TH’ sound was, well, a Neanderthal.
The
target is constantly moving. When I was very young, probably about 1970,
I made reference to a black guy. My well-intentioned aunt scolded me and
told me to say “colored” instead. It turns out that she was already well
behind the curve to which Dr. Williams referred. The Overton Window had already closed on her
fingers. The boys in our neighborhood used to play a game called “smear
the queer” – which was basically to throw a football around like a rugby ball
and tackle and pile on the ball carrier until he gave up the ball. There
were no teams and no score. I mentioned the game to my mom,
who told me not to say “queer” because it was rude. Of course,
today, the Acronym includes the Q for “Queer.”
The
word “gay” is a classic case in point. We still dust off its older usage
when we sing “Deck the Halls.” “Gay” used to be considered a slur, but it
too is now part of the Acronym.
And at some point, Pakistan
became Pah-kee-stahn for those in the know, and The Sudan and The Ukraine lost
their definite articles among the truly sensitive of our species. It is also trendy
to pronounce “Puerto Rico” and “Nicaragua” with a Hispanic accent, but the same
people don’t pronounce “Québec” like a native, nor to they speak of getting a
direct flight to “Frahnk-foort.”
The
rules make no sense and follow no logic. The word “oriental” – which
simply means “eastern” – has become taboo. Never mind the fact that the
Japanese word for Japanese means people of the rising sun (which in Latin, when
applied to the compass, is “oriens, orientis“),
or that their flag depicts, well, a rising sun. But “oriental” is okay
sometimes. Oriental people are not okay; oriental rugs are.
Oriental salads are a gray area. But nobody takes umbrage with the
opposite word “occidental” or its literal translation of “western” (though the
idea of western civilization itself is under attack). It’s all very
confusing.
Moreover,
Frenchman, Englishman, and Irishman are okay; Chinaman is not. A
professor who uses the word “niggardly” may
well find himself losing his tenure and his job. We live in Alice’s
Wonderland under the capricious reign of the Queen of Hearts and the linguistic
confusion of Humpty Dumpty:
‘I don’t know what you
mean by “glory”,’ Alice said.
Humpty Dumpty smiled
contemptuously. ‘Of course you don’t — till I tell you. I meant “there’s a nice
knock-down argument for you!”‘
‘But “glory” doesn’t
mean “a nice knock-down argument”,’ Alice objected.
‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a
scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor
less.’
‘The
question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words
mean so many different things.’
‘The
question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s all.’
These language games are just
a merry go round designed to assert a sense of moral superiority over others, a
neo-Gnostic “us vs. them” desire for cultish peer acceptance, as well as
self-serving outrage – which is the gold standard of the realm in our current
culture dominated by Cultural Marxism and the pseudoscience of
Intersectionalism.
In
1946, George Orwell addressed the political use of language in his essay “Politics and the English
Language.” And of course, this theme of controlling thought by
controlling language is one of the great themes in 1984.
Like
the late Dr. Williams, we should mock this kind of Orwellian language policing
and get on with our lives. I believe it was 1995 when I met Dr. Williams and
presented him a certificate of appreciation from the Sons of Confederate
Veterans. We had a lovely chat, and he told me about his beloved
grandmother in Virginia who was fiercely loyal to the confederacy. Dr.
Williams had a confederate battle flag in his office, and spoke and wrote eloquently
about the constitutional rectitude of
secession. Dr. Williams didn’t care if people were offended,
and in fact, he took pleasure in making people think.
And
now is a great time to review the voluminous writings and books of Walter
Williams, and to revel in his wisdom and wit – not to mention to push back
against political correctness and language policing and all forms of mob-based
stifling and stultification of thought and speech.
And
when someone is outraged by a word or thought that I have used, I enjoy saying,
“There’s more where that came from.” It’s good for people to be
offended. It broadens their horizons. They should thank us for it, even as
we thank God for Dr. Walter E. Williams and our God-given liberties that he
championed.
Originally
published on FatherHollywood.blogspot.com.
Rev. Larry Beane [send him mail] serves as pastor at Salem
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Gretna, LA and teaches high school Apologetics,
Economics, and Government at Wittenberg Academy (online).
Visit his blog.
Copyright
© Rev. Larry Beane
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2020/12/larry-l-beane-ii/778397-2/
