The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis does more harm than good. I mean think about it. This is the mudded thinking that brings us the use of opportunity for problem. This is the same bunk that brings us pc language and the stupid his/her crap not to mention all the inane chatter about how this or that exotic language doesn’t have a word for or has kajillions words for something or other.
That is why I’m calling for a constitutional amendment to ban the teaching of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. Please join me in mailing your representatives about this important issue. We must act now before another liberal art student is harmed.
Thursday, November 03, 2005
Stop teaching the controversy
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This is very interesting stuff. I vaguely thought the Newspeak idea in 1984 was a little exagerrated, but never really reacted against it. Now that I think about it, there was no word for "liberalism" until someone coined it to describe a collection of ideas that were already out there, so it doesn't really make sense that eliminating the word "free" from the language would kill the idea of freedom.
But I don't agree that replacing the word "problem" with "opportunity" doesn't have any effect. Sure, if you fully eliminate "problem" from the language, "opportunity" will lose its positive connotation. But if you just say "opportunity" instead of "problem" now and then, you may benefit from the positive connotations of "opportunity" as opposed to "problem."
Not that I would ever do such a thing.
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