Representative Cori Bush (D-MO), speaking to George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s Good Morning America, defended her calls to defund the police by saying “we can’t get caught up in words.” In the seriocomic series The Orville, the main character Ed Mercer says, “Why do we have to have all these labels and things?…Why even call a box ‘a box’?”
Mercer’s friend Gordon responds with “Maybe it’s just easier to have words.”
I’ll admit: Going public with any statement today invites nitpicking, and not just ordinary nitpicking, but hounding, relentless nitpicking. But there’s some justification in our singling out a word or phrase made into a public icon. Unless we can flawlessly interpret gestures and expressions, we have to rely on language. It’s just easier to have words with clearly defined definitions.
Yet, therein lies another problem, the problem of definition. What does defund mean? If the key word that encapsulates a movement is variable or undefined, then it is meaningless. We need to “get caught up in words” because they are the avenue to understanding—even if that understanding is imperfect because of nuances.
Language has long been a boon and a curse. Very often not precise enough to have the same meaning for two people or two groups, misinterpreted language has confounded relationships and even led to conflict as small as disagreements and as large as war. The “defund the police” movement, given no specific workable alternative for violent offenders, has resulted in depleted police forces and increased crime. Put into action on the simplest understanding of the term, the “defund the police” movement has led to destruction, injury, and death. Those consequences by themselves are good reason “to get caught up in words.”
“Choose your words wisely” is good advice because someone somewhere is going “to get caught up in words.”
Mercer’s friend Gordon responds with “Maybe it’s just easier to have words.”
I’ll admit: Going public with any statement today invites nitpicking, and not just ordinary nitpicking, but hounding, relentless nitpicking. But there’s some justification in our singling out a word or phrase made into a public icon. Unless we can flawlessly interpret gestures and expressions, we have to rely on language. It’s just easier to have words with clearly defined definitions.
Yet, therein lies another problem, the problem of definition. What does defund mean? If the key word that encapsulates a movement is variable or undefined, then it is meaningless. We need to “get caught up in words” because they are the avenue to understanding—even if that understanding is imperfect because of nuances.
Language has long been a boon and a curse. Very often not precise enough to have the same meaning for two people or two groups, misinterpreted language has confounded relationships and even led to conflict as small as disagreements and as large as war. The “defund the police” movement, given no specific workable alternative for violent offenders, has resulted in depleted police forces and increased crime. Put into action on the simplest understanding of the term, the “defund the police” movement has led to destruction, injury, and death. Those consequences by themselves are good reason “to get caught up in words.”
“Choose your words wisely” is good advice because someone somewhere is going “to get caught up in words.”
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