The Current Tragedies

[P L Patrick]

i don't mean to be depressing, anti-intellectual, or offensive.
but i remember during the gulf war, all this sort of analysis went on
online, mostly using metaphor theory. it kept us occupied, but i can't
remember that anything came of it -- or even that it told us anything
people on the left didn't already know, in other guises. a fair amount
of it was just spouting off, too. did any non-linguists listen?
	this reaction may be partly from my exposure to the British
(read English) media, BBC, Guardian etc who seem to have bought in-- if
from a pseudo-respectable angle-- to the same thinking as the people
who did this. everything is about the symbols of wealth and power, the
death of the american dream, even the vignettes of individuals are
clearly written to make the points about americans being belligerent,
naive, ignorant, etc-- all the usual stereotypes you encounter here
(though i haven't noticed the one about obesity cropping up yet).
not much about the way real people's lives have been affected, which is
what matters, isn't it?
	maybe the time spent analysing would be better spent calling
and holding the people we love, and figuring out what we can possibly
say to our children -- always a good test for weeding out the blather.
	-peter-

Prof. Peter L. Patrick
Dept. of Language & Linguistics
University of Essex
Wivenhoe Park
COLCHESTER CO4 3SQ
U.K.

Tel: (from within UK) 01206.87.2088
    (from outside UK) +44.1206.87.2088
Fax: (as above)           1206.87.2198
Email: patrickp at essex.ac.uk
Web: http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~patrickp