A Few Honest Words
Charles Trowbridge
Voice News & Features Editor
Posted 11/19/09
The other day, while talking with my esteemed colleague, Mr. Drew Kelly of page 12 stardom, we recounted some of our recent evenings spent at our favorite local tavern. Actually, we call it "brainstorming."
However, try as we might, we couldn't recollect what exactly we had managed to storm.
"What do we talk about besides East Coast rap vs. West Coast rap, Hunter Thompson, and complaining about politics?" we asked each other.
After casting about for some non-Wu Tang and Warren G.-related topics, our conversation eventually took a turn for the better.
The subject of language managed to worm its way into our collective train of thought.
Language in the United States has become victimized by hyperbolic statements, and has ultimately, desensitized us to meanings and ideas associated with the words.
Take, for instance, the baffling comparisons of Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler.
To compare our president of less than one year to a dictator responsible for the death of six million Jews is not only nonsensical, it's downright idiotic.
Comparing the United States to other empires, such as the Roman or English empires is possibly legitimate.
We've managed to seize and maintain a fairly high level of global control in our speedy rise to world super power.
We have military bases scattered throughout the world, with more to come, and troops in nearly every single country. We've, controlled trade by imposing embargos and tariffs, as well as implementing free trade agreements throughout most of North America, and in the future, South America, too.
Compare our country, of which we are citizens, and contributors to its actions, to other empires; that makes sense.
This is a classic case of desensitization.
As we've distanced ourselves from World War II, generation by generation, the actual acts of Hitler and his Nazi regime has lost realistic meaning. It seems to only exist, to the average citizen, as an abstract concept of oppression through textbooks, video games and movies.
I do not know any other way that one could justify equating Obama with Hitler with any seriousness. The actions of Hitler have, sadly, ceased to have realistic relevance to far too many people.
All because of the overuse of "Nazi" and "Hitler" as descriptors rather than signifiers of their actual meaning.
It is a testament to the increasing laziness with which we use our language. We've come to rely on clichés, hyperbole and recycled language to communicate on a mass scale.
Language is far too important to be cast aside as a commodity.
We've become desensitized to its importance and necessity, as evidenced by the carelessness with which statements such as "Obama=Hitler" are tossed about.
It seems as if there has been a loss of capacity for astute and poignant comparisons and criticisms. Instead, people choose to think "OK, here's a guy with whose politics I disagree. I think he's bad, therefore, he must be like Hitler."
Like my writing teachers always say, "Let the moment pick the word; don't let the word pick the moment."