Hunger and Civil War: Word Usage

If someone had told me back when I was happily nitpicking away in writing class that the day would dawn when the world would share my preoccupation with semantics, I would have laughed and laughed. After all, I'm a part of the internet generation - I'm used to a life wherein people throw around terms like "fascist" and "communist" like confetti whenever they encounter a difference of opinion.

Shows you what I know. Right now, there are two stories floating around that revolve around semantics. One you've probably heard about because it concerns Iraq: the phrase 'civil war' has broken out of those invisible quotes that have surrounded it in all media reports connected to Iraq for quite some time [read Jonathan Alter]. The second you may or may not have heard depending on how deep you trawl for news: there are no longer any hungry Americans. Instead, we now have Americans with "very low food security.

Word games are nothing new in government circles, of course. Nor is it confined to America. The biggest story in Indian political circles this week has been the conviction of Shibu Soren, a Union Cabinet Minister, on charges of murder. Insults and accusations flew fast and hard between the Opposition and Treasury benches as politicians from both sides sought to determine who was more worthy of the moral high ground - the dirty or the scummy. Finally, Parliament had to be adjourned over the matter.

In these days of the TV sound byte, it has become more imperative than ever that you pay particular attention to how you say what you want to say. Eddie Izzard may make all the donut jokes he wants [see clip below] but he's right. And you might oppose the notion that we are all evidently so simpleminded that a turn of speech could affect our perception of an issue but it's true.

If John Kerry isn't enough of an example (not to mention George W. Bush's entire Presidency) then just follow the money - advertising has always been centered around the catchphrase, whether it was some guy hawking vegetables in a Roman market or Subway trying to tell you its good and tasty for you. In fact, catchphrases are so much in demand that there's even a website that'll generate random ones for you. The things you learn...

The act of naming something (or renaming in the case of that basic word 'hunger') traditionally holds great meaning as pointed out by this excellent post. Take, for example, literature - the importance of names and naming isn't confined to acolytes of Shakespeare alone. Writers across the board from fantasy to romance place great emphasis on names.

In the world of fiction, a name is the spotlight that illuminates a scene, a character or plot point. In Gothic romance, the hero might find that his 'real' name is one that provides a passport to riches and romance courtesy the arch villain who stole his birthright in infancy. In fantasy, a sorcerer could use it to gain power and control either over himself or, which is better, various animals such as dragons. In literary fiction, it transforms an individual into a symbol for the collective or an idea (while sometimes transforming the writer himself into a symbol as Salman Rushdie found out to his cost).

No wonder then, that President Bush resists the idea of civil war in Iraq - denial works just as well for governments as for people. Unfortunately, for him and everyone of us that likes a spot of selective blindness, in the real world names often lack the mystical power literature grants it so freely. Thus, you could call the situation in Iraq nothing more serious than a rowdy party without changing the fact that thousands upon thousands are either getting killed or fleeing the country every day [here's a theory]. You can also say that the 35 million Americans who are unable to afford a meal are just insecure about the state of their pantries without it making any difference whatsoever to the pangs of hunger they suffer.

I guess, on the plus side, this means we have some hope of eradicating world hunger by 2015 after all - we can simply change the terminology. And now that NBC has accepted there is Civil War in Iraq, those opposed to the war and Bush's policies can derive some measure of satisfaction by saying, "I told you so".

On the minus side, once the word games are over, everybody still only gets to lose.

Eddie Izzard on President Kennedy:

Jon Stewart on Iraqi Civil War:

Jon Stewart Debates John Oliver on Semantics: