Words are what you make of them - how the English language has changed through various inversions and meanings of terminology - Column

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), Nov, 1993 by Gerald F. Kreyche

ALMOST TWO AND A HALF millennia ago, Plato warned, "False words are not only evil in themselves, but ... they infect the soul with evil." American Indians accused whites of speaking with a "forked tongue." In modern times, George Orwell, in his prophetic novel, 1984, predicted the present atmosphere of "doublespeak."

Words, like ideas, have consequences and possess the power to promote truth or spread lies. Today, good words have become bad and language that should be meant to clarify is meant to confuse. For instance, the Clinton Administration uses the terms "investment" to signify spending tax dollars and "public participation" to mean sacrifice. Paradoxical oxymorons have become out-and-out contradictions such as "managed competition."

The history of structural reversing is time-honored. Biblical scholars draw attention to the fact that Lucifer, once God's "prosecuting attorney," becomes the prosecuted; Jesus, the proclaimer, becomes the proclaimed. In various classical tragedies, it is the good guy who becomes the bad guy. Examples are Othello, Macbeth, and, in real life, Richard Nixon. On occasion, the bad guy becomes the good guy, as Jean Valjean in Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. Similarly, ugly words such as "swamp" have been given the dignity of environmental status and now are called wetlands.

Sen. Bob Packwood (R.-Ore.), the alleged sexual harasser, appears now to be the harassed as nearly every women's group is out after his scalp. Many whites also feel that, although minorities once were the harassed, the latter now have become the new harassers, denying whites privileges they insist are exclusively theirs.

Harold Washington, former black mayor of Chicago, humorously used to tell his white constituents that they should understand when he said "Bad," he really meant "Good!" Through the employment of euphemisms, terrorists have become freedom fighters. The word "destabilization" more often than not implies political assassination. The handicapped are "differently-abled"; taxes are "revenue enhancement"; and many of those who are unable (read "unwilling") to hack it in a tough world are designated as "underprivileged" or "disadvantaged. " Deliberate lies simply are forms of governmental "disinformation," such as Pres. Dwight Eisenhower's denial that the U-2 downed by the Soviet Union was a spy plane. (Interestingly, now that the Cold War is over, the government has admitted that at least 31 flights had been shot down and 138 Air Force personnel on such espionage missions still are unaccounted for.) This is little different from the coverup of the Iran-Contra "arms for hostages" controversy.

In medieval times, a "Duns" was a person regarded with high-level, albeit subtle, intelligence. (The origin lies with the philosopher, John Duns Scotus.) Today, a dunce is regarded as a stupid person, although, thanks to political correctness, he or she more probably would be called "a differently-abled learner."

When Frederick Nietzsche entitled one of his books The Gay Philosopher, little did he dream how that title would read today. The same is true of the lyrics, "What a gay mood I'm in" in the song "It's Almost Like Being in Love."

The word "family" once was simple enough to understand as signifying a conjugal union between a man and a woman with offspring. Spouse had a clear meaning. Today, with gays and lesbians clamoring for sick leave benefits and other perks for their "live-in companions," ambiguity has set in.

Unmarried sexual liaisons once resulted in "bastards," "illegitimate children," or offspring born "out of wedlock." They now are referred to more kindly as "children born to unwed mothers." The National Center for Health Statistics revealed that, for 1990, 20% of such births were to whites, 37% to Hispanics, and 67% to blacks. It looks like the old adage remains true: "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."

Jews rightly claim that they long have been victims of anti-Semitism, but the term is used incorrectly. Arabs, after all, are a Semitic people, but the term is not generally considered to include them.

Similarly, American blacks now wish to be designated as Afro-Americans. They usurp all of Africa in doing so, as U.S. citizens do the same in designating themselves as Americans, ignoring the South Americans, Canadians, and Mexicans. What of an Egyptian-American or an Algerian-American? Both are from the ancestry of continental Africa. One can see the confusion of designating them as Afro-Americans.

Everyone has seen the sign in front of some stores reading "We buy junk. We sell antiques." There is nothing harmful in using words playfully. However, consider the so-called Serbian "ethnic cleansing" campaign; in altering word meanings here, there lurks the real danger of hiding genocide.

Persons who revealed good judgment and good taste before the hoopla of civil "rights" gone berserk were complimented on being discriminating. Today, women and minorities are indiscriminate in accusing others of discrimination whenever they encounter a social problem. It is thus that virtues grow into vices.