'Other exhausted words' ... ?
"A writer I admire expresses in a few words his disdain for plausible but empty political language, beginning with one good example. "The word, Fascism," he writes, "has now no meaning insofar as it signifies 'something not desirable.'" He adds other exhausted words, including democracy, freedom and patriotic - convenient terms for establishing righteousness, easily melting into self-righteousness.
The writer is George Orwell, in his celebrated 1946 essay "Politics and the English Language." Orwell contended that language had become corrupt and debased in his time, but the survival of his examples into the present contradicts him, suggesting that not only the problem but the very examples may be timeless."
Plain, direct language remains rare, desirable - and risky in ways that authority, even more than the rest of us, tries to avoid." ...
... "Dilution of meaning is familiar in a way that can make us feel comfortable, or even worse, comfortably righteous."
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concept critical thinking parity | framework evidence-based transformation |
holistic care integrated care person-centred | outcomes prevention sustainable health care |
orcid.org/0000-0002-0192-8965