Its sad when words like binary and unrealistic count as big words, in a culture that usually says big words because words like unwieldy or obscure or even needlessly complex vex and confuse them. Once upon a time, when I was a kid for example, publications as homespun and commonplace as Readers Digest used to encourage us to expand our vocabularies, enrich our word power, as they said. The more of our rich and diverse language you were comfortable with, they reasoned, the more clearly you could communicate - and comprehend - complex and nuanced ideas. Now, instead, if you try to express any idea more complicated or nuanced than you can communicate with third grade English, youre in for more mockery than interested discussion or rational debate. It remains one of the most telling and difficult to understand things about our culture, to me.... Seriously, a culture where terms indicating both intelligence and education are used as epithets. Honestly, no single thing, of all the things I hate - racism, bigotry, religious fanaticism - none has come as close to moving me to leaving society as the way we enshrine and take pride in mediocrity of intellect and purity of ignorance.
Posted on: Wed, 01 Oct 2014 18:28:21 +0000
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