Rhetoric is rarely appreciated for its impact in its own time; only in hindsight. I used to grind my teeth at the diplomatic verbal runaround politicians did before we had Dubya and Cheney, who didn't give two shits about how they phrased things, and then it became more clear the value of that "bland" diplomacy most politicians normally use. Likewise, all the references to violence spewed by politicians and pundits in the past few years don't seem literal until someone who is clearly unbalanced DOES it.
The importance of words by and for the general public has been downplayed to such degree for years, as though they have no meaning. (I'm not talking about the hyper-PC crowd, which takes things in the extreme opposite direction.) I'm not sure this is going to have much impact on making words important again, though ...
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Date: 2011-01-13 06:12 pm (UTC)The importance of words by and for the general public has been downplayed to such degree for years, as though they have no meaning. (I'm not talking about the hyper-PC crowd, which takes things in the extreme opposite direction.) I'm not sure this is going to have much impact on making words important again, though ...