Haiti Tag

23 Mar

Posted at 10:27h in Uncategorized

In looking back through the posts of this blog, I realize that I first mentioned the Coronavirus on January 26 of 2020, and by March 1 these posts were running hard on the subject--and we were also surmising that no one would be done with it as summarily as almost everyone was predicting. So many miseries later, we now are actually in a situation where we can at least imagine, if not seriously consider, where we go from here. The past is prologue, because history has a lot to teach us. I'm glad to recommend two books here: one is Frank Snowden's impressive Epidemics and Society: From the Black Death to the Present, and the other is Plagues and the Paradox of Progress by Thomas J. Bollyky. Interestingly, neither book prophecies what most people apparently seem to assume—that life will go back to approximating whatever "normal" was. Give that one up...

15 Jan

Posted at 06:00h in Uncategorized

The misuse of language induces evil in the soul. That's a statement attributed to Socrates, and you may have heard or read me quoting it before. It bears repeating. The etymology of the English word "language" tells quite a story. It stems from the Old French langage: "speech, words, oratory; a tribe, people, nation"; from the Latin vulgate linguaticum, from Latin lingua: "tongue," also "speech, language," from the pre-Indo-European root dnghu- "tongue." Interesting how closely related it is to "tribe" or "people," isn't it? You are what you say. The ultra-right’s assault on language has escalated to a linguistic battle–now being waged even across official Washington—in an attempt to shift public perception of key policies by changing the way the federal government talks and writes about climate change, scientific evidence, disadvantaged communities, and other issues. Surely we remember George Orwell’s chilling novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, in which the totalitarian state’s mottos were “War...