There are words and phrases that sneak into our every day lexicon, and before you know it, like Johnson Grass and Tea Partiers, they have invaded our consciousness. Let me give you a few examples:
…main stream media
…partisan, non-partisan, or bi-partisan
…the arab street
…on/off the table
And the one that makes my eyes glaze over and mind slam shut…
…on the ground (and its many derivatives)
I’m sure you and I could come up with a much longer and even more revolting list, but I’m going to stop here and give you some thoughts on some of those listed above.
Let’s start with main street media (MSM), or as my favorite unelected but always aspiring vice-presidential candidate from Alaska has said oh so cleverly…”lame stream media”. Isn’t that cute. It helps if you curl your lip when you say it and snarl, ever so slightly. Or there is the Limbaugh approach which is to utter it so forcefully so as to project small particles of spittle from his considerable mouth. Actually, if one were inclined to research the accepted meaning of the phrase, one would find the following definition, “those media generally reflective of the prevailing currents of thought, influence, or activity”. Not so bad really. I would, therefore, surmise that the antithesis of main stream media would be those who espouse the minority or out of favor thinking, lacking influence and activity. If you look at it that way, I now understand what the Palin types are thinking. Main stream media are those media who articulate positions which they do not favor. Hmm. Interesting. Or said another way, the way to counter an argument is to disparage the deliverer of the argument. I got it. So for this purpose, at any one time, either CBS or Fox News could or could not be a member of the tribe. Further, The Huffington Post (Huffpo) as we in the know refer to it, or The Drudge Report could be painted with this tarred brush. I won’t even mention the venerable New York Times; for I already know how it is characterized, except David Brooks’ column, by those on the right side of the aisle. Beware, if you ever utter the MSM words around me, please expect a Howard Dean like scream….aaaargh!
I’m going to skip the “partisan” collection of overused, overwrought phrases because I’m sure you already get the inanity of one politician who hates the other looking into the camera and suggesting that anything between them, except for bilking donors out of more money, could ever be bi-partisan. I’ll also not bore you with a dissertation about the “the arab street” because, well, I’m not really sure I understand it myself. I just wonder if the arab street and main street are ever the same. For example, if you take the main street in Damascus (I have absolutely no idea what that is) and you populate it with a lot of arabs, would that be a main street, an arab street or maybe the main arab street. The more I think about it, I think I could sum up my feelings about the overwrought, overuse of “the arab street” in two words. So what.
The on the table/off the table phraseology is one you hear mainly from politicians, rich business guys or maybe union negotiators who are trying to get to be rich business guys. This usage, however, is a lot trickier than it seems at first blush. You might have guessed that the verb to table is not to be trifled with as it has at least two meanings. The first meaning, which is its meaning in the United Kingdom and all the rest of the english speaking world except the United States, is that when one tables something it is considered to be a proposal to put the issue on the table and begin immediate consideration. In the good old US of A, it means exactly the opposite. When we table something in the environs of the Potomac River, it means we want to put it aside and delay a discussion of the item, most often, forever. Wow! This is really handy. Same words, same language, opposite meaning. It brings a new standard to political obfuscation. Just think. Apply the same concept to the transitive verb to drink. It could mean that you’re going to stop by Manny’s and have a few cool ones with the guys or it could mean that I’m coming straight home after work. Who’s the guy that said that America and England are two countries separated by a common language?
On the ground. It’s seldom that we ever know (or even care) about the etymology of a word or phrase, but I’ve got this one nailed. In the April 11th, 1980 issue of the Christian Science Monitor a reporter named John K.Coole wrote an article entitled “US Rapid Strike Force…” wherein he penned the fateful phrase which has spawned hundreds of overused, overwrought derivatives. As I wrote in my posting of April 10, 2008 about Gen. Petraeus’ testimony to congress about the progress (or lack thereof) in the Iraq war that some combination of boots on the ground, commanders on the ground or situation on the ground was used four hundred seventeen times. Now we have a bootsontheground.com web site, and no less a personage than Nicholas Kristoff of the dreaded NYT has appropriated “On the Ground” for his blog title. My all-time favorite, however, is www.feathersontheground.com which extolls the pleasures and difficulties of raising chickens. Can it get much more overused/overwrought than this. When you start to parse phrases like this, one begins to understand that it’s usage obscures rather than brings light to the subject. Lets look at those “commanders on the ground” that George W. was always deferring to. Were they actually standing on the ground at the point of battle in Iraq, or were they scanning monitors and receiving briefings via teleconference in an air-conditioned office in Qatar or Southern Command’s HQ in Tampa. I dunno, and I’ll bet W. didn’t either. I’m not sure that it really matters except that I’d be more inclined to believe a politico who said, for example, ” based on the opinion of our commander with the troops in Waziristan, …”.
Let me leave you with this. The next time you’re inclined to use one of the many overused/overwrought phrases uttered by anyone on the telly or in the halls of Congress in the last thirty days, don’t. Figure out what you really want to say, and just say it.
