More on substituting

[Jonathan Lighter]

The biggest problem I have with the Churchill quote is that it's
too absurdly optimistic. If he'd said "may be" instead of "will be," I'd
have no problem.

I'm sure the context of the remark would have modified the sense somewhat
too.

Hirschbein also seems to believe that  the phrase "balance of terror" was
turned into "mutually assured destruction" because "terror" required a
euphemism to keep the  public behind it.

Like

1. "mutually assured destruction" (aka "MAD") isn't almost equally scary.

2. the professional users of such terms are so easily distracted that they
can't remember what they're really talking about.  (I'm sure there were some
Strangelove types, of course.)

3.  "MAD" ousted "balance of terror" from the strategic lexicon.

Of course the Defense Department (formerly the War Department) is always on
the lookout, like everybody else, for attractive euphemisms.  But
Hirschbein's article presents something like a strong Worf-Sapir
hypothesis, apparently calculated by madmen to fool themselves and everyone
else,  that makes everything worse than it is already.

To  continue my rant: he also ridicules the proverb, "If you wish for peace,
prepare for war," by suggesting its absolute interchangeability with "If you
wish for war, prepare for war."

It's great when you can sum up war, peace, diplomacy,and MAD in a couple of
easy-to-remember slogans.  Saves brain work.

JL



JL

On Sat, Aug 6, 2011 at 12:24 PM, victor steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       victor steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: More on substituting
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> BTW, Hirschbein's "plain English" is no substitute for Churchill's
> original. He simply failed to understand the quote that he based his
> whole hyperventilating tirade on. In that context, what's a little
> perversion of a common idiom!
>
> VS-)
>
> On 8/6/11, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> ...
> > To show what I mean by "insane," here is the complete context:
> >
> > "[Winston Churchill said the following about the H-bomb and the policy
> > of "mutually assured destruction":] 'By a process of sublime irony, [we]
> > have reached a state where safety will be the sturdy child of terror, and
> > survival the twin brother of annihilation.'
> >
> > "Philosophers are a little touchy about language and logic:  eloquence
> > is no substitute for dubious reasoning. In plain English, Churchill and
> the
> > others are saying: _To reduce the risk of nuclear war, the risk must be
> > increased_."
>
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