In a startling move the Soros Foundation has announced that it will donate immediately copies of S.I. Hayakawa's "Language in Thought and Action" to every national state, city, local and municipal government employees starting with President Bush. The foundation will also donate the book to every high school and college student in the US, every girl and boy scout, every altar boy, every rubbish collector, every police and fireman and woman, every donut shop operator, every dog walker, every retiree, every teacher, every lame balloon man, every will-of-the-whisp, every user of HOVER lanes, every girl named Britney, every boy named Michael, every Catholic, every Protestant, every Jew, every Muslin, and everyone else.
The Soros press release says that the objective of the massive giveway is "to improve the political discourse during a political season when language is under assault."
The Hayakawa book, written by the late California US senator, has long been popular in freshman college English classes. In large the book urges readers to be wary of political discourse, the use of charged works, judgements reported as facts, and the inevitable run up the language abstraction tree to love of god and country.
Professor Benson Hurst, Director of the Language and Semantics Lab at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (Indiana, Pa), thinks the Soros gift is a god send. "We use the Hayakawa book at the university and I've always been struck by the clarity of something written more than forty years ago. One reason for this, I think, is that Sam Hayakawa lived through the period of Japanese internment in California after Pearl Harbor. He knew something about the bogey man. he called this: the little man who wasn't there. That is, we have an idea in our head that people from other races and ethic groups have certain attributes or that the 9/11 hijackers were from Iraq though there was absolutely no connection. Hayakawa had to live fighting off the "sneaky Jap" notion--he was a native born American citizen.
"The book should be useful to supporters and foes of the war in Iraq. The chapter on two-valued orientation is especially useful. More and more we are beginning to hear remarks (and see bumper stickers), America--love it or leave, my country right or wrong, and the like. The remarks assume that there is no middle posiiton; that people can't be patriots if they don't support the war in Iraq.
"Patriotism has been called the last refuge of the scoundrel. This book will remind readers that they should be wary of anyone who too easily rushes to patriotism. We saw far too much of that at the Democratic convention. The Republicans have mastered the art of abstraction, linking 9/11 with freedom, patriotism, and pre-emptive wars.
"The book will also remind readers that we should be careful about bringing god into the argument. Islamic terrorists have done that and we need to face that head on. But, though we keep our Christian god on the sidelines, the god is still invoked. Hayakawa would be very concerned about linking religion, democracy, and war.
He would also be very concerned about how the word terrorism or terrrorist has become the code word for anything the current administratiin opposes. The Patriot Act can be interpreted in a way that makes normal political protest an act of terrorism. This is a very dangerous trend."
The White House applauded any effort by a Russian-born Democrat who wants to unseat the president to buy public discouse.
The Kansas City nude widowers' club announced that the Haykawa book would be on their fall reading list.
The New York Municipal Union, a Kerry supporter, announced that it did not want to find any of the Hayakawa books in the city's garbage.
Posted by Chuck at September 16, 2004 12:29 PM | TrackBack