killing people and breaking things

[David A. Daniel]

Indeed. In September of 1967 he was a Lieutenant JG, then he went moving up
the ranks in the usual way. I have no idea what became of him after about
1972 or so. His name was Al Heidt. Maybe he can be found and asked about the
quote.
DAD


Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: killing people and breaking things
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Dave's instructor in 1967 must have been some sort of visionary. GB upholds
my impression that the phrase - as a cliche characterization - became common
in print only after ca1980, and especially after 2001.

The order of the activities is often reversed.

As rhetoric, of course, it has the _faux_ childlike quality of "What if they
gave a war and nobody came?" which was common enough in the late '60s
(indirectly via Carl Sandburg).

Moreover, "killing people and breaking things" (particularly in that
emotionally anticlimactic order) makes death and destruction on any scale
sound fairly contained and refreshingly satisfying. (Take that, enemy
creeps! See ya!)

That's why it usually appears in quotation marks. They allow the quoter some
distance.

JL


On Thu, Apr 28, 2011 at 5:13 PM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:

> Subject:      Re: killing people and breaking things
>
>
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>
> In GB, this is a snippet view from Amazing stories: Volume 15, Issues
> 1-6, dated 1941:
>
> "...I'll stamp around and I'll break things up and 'l'll kill people.
> I want you. Master!" and thus it went, ceaselessly. "He remembers,"
> whispered Clive. "He's mad!" "Not mad enough not to know what he
> wants," said Jason."...
>
> DanG
>
> On Thu, Apr 28, 2011 at 4:38 PM, Neal Whitman <nwhitman at ameritech.net>
> wrote:
> > Subject:      killing people and breaking things
> >
>
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> >
> > I'm writing an article about the military use of "kinetic", as discussed
> =
> > here a few times. A friend who has served in the Army defined it as =
> > "killing people and breaking things", which I've since learned is a =
> > common summary of the purpose of an army. The earliest I've found this =
> > phrase attested is from 1977, via Google Books:
> >
> >  Armies kill people and break things; therefore, their commitment =
> > involves serious questions as to who will be killed, what will be =
> > broken, and how long and by whom the effects will be felt. =20
> >  Parameters: journal of the US Army War College: Volume 7, Issue 3 =
> > (1977)
> >
> > Elsewhere, I've found it vaguely attributed to the Vietnam War era. Does
> =
> > anyone here know of earlier uses than 1977 for "kill(ing) people and =
> > break(ing) things"?
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Neal Whitman
> > Email: nwhitman at ameritech.net
> > Blog: http://literalminded.wordpress.com
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



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