"political"

[Joel S. Berson]

I'm with you, Jon, in "interrogating" "political".  For those who
believe all writing has its agenda, then another writer's calling
something anything is a "political" act.  And their agenda can
appropriate "political" to mean "with an agenda.

(Probably can be said better.)

Joel

At 5/15/2012 01:45 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >Isn't the justification of a specific public policy a political act?
>
>Yeah, but that isn't the issue here.
>
>The author is simply discussing the question of whether war existed in the
>Ice Age. He's saying that whatever they may have been doing to each other
>with those spears, it is "a political act" to call it war.
>
>Because the Ice Agers, for all we know, might have thought of mass stabbing
>and bopping as recreation or a neutral activity undifferentiated from peace
>or a smart way to honor their gods (oops! political! maybe they didn't have
>"gods"!).
>
>So "politics" and "policy" as we know them are not involved.
>
>JL
>
>On Tue, May 15, 2012 at 1:32 PM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: "political"
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Isn't the justification of a specific public policy a political act? The
> > author was arguing that using " the activities of the hunters of the Ice
> > Age" as justification for war is political.
> >
> > DanG
> >
> >
> > On Tue, May 15, 2012 at 12:27 PM, Jonathan Lighter
> > <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:
> >
> > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > > -----------------------
> > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > > Subject:      "political"
> > >
> > >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > > Gee, I'm dense. After decades of exposure to Marxist, deconstructionist,
> > > structuralist, poststructuralist, and metastructuralist criticism, I
> > still
> > > don't know what "political" means!  Can you beat it?
> > >
> > > Can someone interpret the meaning for me in the following sentence? I
> > mean
> > > fairly authoritatively:
> > >
> > > "To use words from one culture to describe the activities of another is
> > > always a political act. It is an ethnocentric value judgment to impose
> > the
> > > term 'war'  to describe the activities of the hunters of the Ice Age. The
> > > peoples of that time probably had no word for war and would be amazed at
> > > the concept."
> > >
> > > 'Self-serving'? 'Ethnocentrically self-serving'?  'Unjustifiable from a
> > > perspective of cultural relativism'?  'Etc.'?
> > >
> > > There seems to be an underlying nuance of "politics" present that isn't
> > > covered by OED either. But what exactly?
> > >
> > > Should we care?
> > >
> > > JL
> > >
> > > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> > truth."
> > >
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> > >
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
>--
>"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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