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The new world of PCS 10/16/2013 5:53:45 AM
We've crossed over the river and into the weeds, from PC, to PCS. I’m a writer. Because I traffic in words, phrases, sentences and paragraphs, perhaps more than most people I take notice of what’s going on in the language and lexicon that passes for communication these days. And quite frankly I’m perplexed. This post will have the patina of political posturing because, well, so much of our national dialogue does these days, (and because I love alliteration. ‘patina of political posturing, is that great or what?) There, I said it, part of my motivation is and has always been to play with the language and see where it takes me. In today’s post I propose that everyone does it, that is to say that everyone ‘plays with the language’ out of some reactionary response to whatever issue they bump into, and we do it without thinking. I admit that I do the very same thing myself, guilty, yes, true, I throw myself on the mercy of the tribunal. I often spit out words before parsing them. Except when I write them down. I think my itch to scratch language chiggers and chafes is courtesy of Miss Parker, my second grade teacher, who once wrote on her chalkboard the first words that electrified me: ‘Horton Hears a Who.’ Not alliteration precisely, but those three (okay, four) words jerked me awake after lunch. Thereafter I was hooked on words.
Fast forward, ahem, a lot of years, to our eroded language miasma. In a recent Huff Post piece, with accompanying video, I saw and read a prime example of what I’ve labeled our new age ‘Pre-Cognitive Speech.’ Yes, I submit that we’ve now crossed the river and into the weeds, from the PC (Politically Correct) into the ethereal (and perhaps more detrimental) realms of PCS (Pre-Cognitive Speech). The Huff Po article/video was a perfect illustration of this sad development in human linguistic progress (Regress?). In it, a fellow named Larry Klayman ‘called out’ our president to ‘put down the quran, and leave town…’ Now either Mr. Klayman is egregiously ill-informed about Mr. Obama’s religious preferences, or he knows how to get himself on Huff Po. I suspect the latter to be true. But here’s the thing; his words are not only inflammatory— which ostensibly harms no one, he was on the National Mall, after all, not in a crowded theater— but his words were solidly in the realm of PCS. Again as a writer, allow me to parse his PCS pronouncement: “I call upon all of you to wage a second American nonviolent revolution, to use civil disobedience, and to demand that this president leave town, to get up, to put the Quran down, to get up off his knees, and to figuratively come up with his hands out,”
Where to start. Call upon? Is he visiting? Or planning to fall into their collective lap? Language police, myself included, write instead, ‘Call on.’ A second revolution? Okay, this may be nit-picky, but this is a favorite nit of mine, so I’m gonna pick it. The American revolution never ended, and with any luck never will, so please you chucklehead T-partiers stop with the silly references to revolution. We’re not a country; we’re an idea, and ideas never end. Oh, and the first ‘revolution’ was pretty violent, so we can’t ‘wage a second non-violent one’ just yet. ‘This president leave town’? Okay, that’s progress; they’re at long last acknowledging that Barack Obama is a legitimate president. It only took five years. ‘To get up’? I thought he already left town? Oh well, I’ll skip the lack of continuity. Miss Parker gave me that leeway in second grade, it’s the least I can do for Mr. Klayman. ‘Put the Quran down.’ Why would a Christian president have a Quran? And why would it matter? ‘Come up with his hands out.’ Ugh, as Miss Parker would say. Shouldn’t it at the very least be grammatically coherent? ‘Come out with his hands up’? As my good friend Kevin says, “Puuuuleaze!”
End of today’s rant. Thanks for taking time to read it. Now get off your knees, stay in town and try to avoid the PCS in all conversations today. Oh, and thanks to Miss Parker wherever you are.
