Language

What language is to be used in this website ? Surely, no swear words or shouting - Santa Claus would call me into his office and give me a performance review !

In this site honesty will be valued highly. In its simplest form it requires that "thou shalt not lie" - which means telling the truth. But for some people there are shades of truth. There is the ‘simple’ truth, the ‘absolute’ truth, the statistic. You’ve heard it before.

I think there is only one truth. Not simple, not elaborate, not absolute. Just truth. What someone says is either true or not true. How can anyone argue with that ? But its not that simple. There are various forms of "intellectual dishonesty" which muddy the waters. One is called "Omissions", the other "Political Correctness".

Omissions work by telling only part of a story, thereby creating an impression that is a far cry from the truth (trouble is these people don’t lie outright, but of course in their heart they know they do). Example: ‘In a fun race between top international politicians our president, our beloved leader, Vladimir Butin, achieved an honourable second placing in a field of very strong competitors.’ What this news item doesn't say is that there were only two competitors. And that the winner was a war veteran with a wooden leg.

Political Correctness calls things by different names. For instance ...
- a doctor’s operation leading to a death is called "adverse outcome" ,
- "collateral damage" means that troops have killed women and children,
- "advanced interrogation protocol" is another name for torture.
I’d rather call a spade a shovel . Of course, spin is the same thing. So, no spin doctors here.

I won’t be talking euphuism (no, its not misspelled for euphemism - it means "precious" language, affected, artificial). If it can be said in a simpler way, I will. Occasionally, however, I’ll use a rare word like the one above to put some diversity into proceedings; this may annoy some readers – they’ll have to look it up in the dictionary. I'll do that to reduce by a little this well-known trend:
-> Shakespeare used around 40,000 different words,
---> the modern Englishman uses about 1000 words,
-----> the average American about 100.
This is predicted to decline further. We don’t know what the last surviving words will be, but I’m sure ‘Coke’ will be one of them.

We also need balance. If I mention atrocities in country X, you will probably remind me that country Y has also committed some. I’ll try and say that up front and straight away, to save time and avoid arguments.

We also need balance in numbers: Security forces will always say ‘there were 50 demonstrators’, while organisers will say there were 500. The truth is somewhere in the middle. Aren’t these games stupid ? After all, if there were 50 people killed, does it really matter if the other side says they were ‘only’ 40 ? What matters is that a lot of people were killed.

There is a lot more about language. But I'll save that for later.