Wednesday, April 01, 2009

George Would Be Proud

One of the late George Carlin's great obsessions was language, particularly the bastardization thereof. In particular, George seemed to have a soft spot for euphemisms. I remember a bit he did about the evolution of the term "shell shock" to "post-traumatic stress disorder" in only a few decades. The point being that the further we muffle the original term in pleasant sounding bullshit, the more distanced we are from the concept at its core and, ultimately, distracted by it.

As Jon Stewart and John Oliver explain, the Obama folks are all over that idea.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c
Redefinition Accomplished
comedycentral.com
Daily Show Full EpisodesEconomic CrisisPolitical Humor


The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c
Obama Rebranding
comedycentral.com
Daily Show Full EpisodesEconomic CrisisPolitical Humor


Oy vey. Haven't we learned by now that just changing the name doesn't solve the problem?! This isn't the sort of "change" was I hoping for.

I was wrong - George would be pissed.

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