War of words

On New Year's Day, Lake Superior State University published a list of words that should be banned for "misuse, overuse, and general uselessness." One of the words on this year's list is "occupy" which prompted my friend and debate partner to reply:

I am NOT done with "occupy" until at least next election day, and very likely not then.

I heartily agree, though note such things as "occupy Thanksgiving" are phrases I think should fall under the ban (which is why it was included).

Wayne State University politely waited a couple days after the earlier list was announced, then responded with their own list of words that are perfectly fine, but don't get much use these days. The list of 10 words includes:

Frisson -- A sudden involuntary shiver felt at times of great emotion.

Sisyphean -- A task that is or appears to be endless and futile.

Truckle -- Be subservient.

Banning overused words and promoting underused words is a fun little exercise, but there is a war of words out there. This war has been going on for a long time, with the current phase running hard since at least the 1970s. It's the war the 1% has been wielding against the 99%. Though the war has been waged only with words so far it has still done quite a bit of damage. Over the years the 1% has been very good at this war, mainly because (1) they have the think-tanks that do the research to find out exactly which turn of phrase gets the biggest response and (2) they have the money, media exposure, and discipline to hammer their choice phrases home. The war of words has been so successful that large numbers of Democrats (and many times the prez.) have bought into the phrases (as well as the dollars behind them).

Some of the words used in this campaign have been "death tax" (used to be estate tax), "job creators," and "special interests" (how a teacher got to have special interests and a corporation doesn't shows how effective the war has been).

Richard Eskow of Campaign for America's Future lists some of the most effective phrases in the campaign in 2011. The list and Eskow's reaction includes:

Entitlement reform -- "designed to persuade the public that an elderly woman living on $800 per month is a social parasite -- but the hedge fund manager who pays 15% tax rate on his billions is not."

Deficit crisis -- Nope, the crisis is 24 million un- or under-employed.

Technocrat -- makes the 1 percent's actions sound clean, bipartisan, and above the fray.

Ideology -- a word that has been bloodied. Everyone operates through a personal ideology. Claiming to operate without an ideology makes the corporations sound noble.

Triggers -- allows the current lawmakers to be long gone before the explosion decimates the budget through unpopular cuts.

Ah, but this year progressives have been able to broadcast a few words of their own, such as "occupy" and "the 99%" and "income inequality" and "Justice for Wall Street." And in only three months the war of words has changed significantly.