A Call for Linguistic Reformation

When the denizens of Bloody Nib Manor were young the news readers on the radio and television did not concern themselves with appearing "cool." They were concerned with appearing authoritative, knowledgeable and articulate. They did not use slang, whether common, avant garde or teen age unless there was no other word available. They did not call marijuana "pot" or "grass" or "Maryjane. They called it marijuana. They did not call young women "chicks" or use words such as "groovy" or terms such as "far out." They spoke proper American English and prided themselves on their ability to convey their thoughts and the content of the news stories using the language that was, at that time, the common currency of the land.

And in doing so they brought the level of language up from the vulgar. Various slangs were then considered outre', uneducated, trendy or the result of youthful rebellion. For an adult over the age of 22 to use teenage or street slang was a sign of either lack of education or an attempt to appear young and "with it."

Things have changed, and not for the better. For some reason slang and slangish catch phrases have infected the news and the population in general. Ask yourself this question. How many times, during the course of a day, have you heard an apparently educated and mature person say during a formal talk, not just a personal conversation, say such things as, "Hello?" (meaning pay attention or are you stupid?), "Get used to it", "Bling", "Getting real" and so on and so on.. If you, the reader, do not find this at least mildly disturbing, perhaps you are reading the wrong blog.

There is a way of speaking and writing that is proper, and there is a way of speaking and writing that is improper, for general presentation. What we seem to have here are a group of people who are more concerned about appearing in touch with the current youth and gangsta culture than in conveying ideas and concepts. Slang has it's place. And that place is in a group or subgroup. Sailors, machinists and musicians et al have their own patois that serves as a verbal shorthand for members of that group. Ethnic minorities have slang that is traditional for that group. Youth have slang to make themselves indecipherable to adults. But it is the job of those in the various media to communicate with the general population and not any particular group. Language is one of the glues that holds a culture together and the use of various slang words and terms acts as a solvent that dissolves that glue.

So let us, as speakers and writers of English, the richest language in the world despite the protestations of the vile French, work to preserve the language which has served to create the most free and creative culture the world from the infestation of our tongue by barbaric slang by protesting when our local new reader leads a story by announcing that it is about "Bling for Dawgs."