come_to_think

Some years ago, on some venue or other, I asked:  When, in song & story, an American says "He didn't treat her right", is that really as vague as the literal meaning of the words, or are we to understand more specifically "He beat her" or "He was unfaithful to her" or "He didn't satisfy her sexually"?  I can't remember if I got an answer.  This evening, however, I happened on one man's notion of it.  Namely, listening to Dave Van Ronk sing "If You Leave Me, Pretty Momma", I heard

If you leave me, pretty momma,
Better not treat me right.
I'll just have to forget you
After tomorrow night.

That pretty clearly calls for the third interpretation, mutatis mutandis.

Back in the '30s, a character in a Nazi play said "Wenn ich 'Kultur' hoere, entsichere ich meinen Browning" --- literally, "When I hear 'culture', I release the safety catch on my Browning".  Freely translated into English as "When I hear the word culture, I reach for my revolver", this became a catchphrase & was often mistakenly attributed to Goebbels.

I do not carry either a Browning or a revolver, and I can put up with "culture", but there are a number of words that, when I hear them these days, remind me that I am in enemy territory --- not, actually, in themselves, but in their currently fashionable uses, which for the most part scarcely need be specified:

abuse

agenda

contradiction (a la Marx, = conflict)

define (= adapt, ascertain, ask, assign, assume, be, bound, cast, characterize, choose, clarify, classify, configure, confine, constitute, construct, decide, delineate, denote, depict, describe, design, designate, determine, direct, distinguish, dominate, draw, epitomize, establish, evaluate, exemplify, express, find, fix, give, govern, identify, limit, list, measure, represent, require, say, set, specify, state, take, terminate, treat, yield, etc.)

denial

disorder (DSM)

dysfunctional

excellence

existential

featured

feel (= think, judge, etc.)

foundation

genocide

icon

identity (= allegiance, ego ideal, identification, integrity, loyalty, nationalism, self-image, solidarity, soul, etc.)

impact

incredible

international (= foreign)

issue

legacy

legendary

multicultural

narcissism

personality

potential

price tag

quality

reinvent

relatively

resolve

showcase

signature

total

who ("who you are")