All things public are under attack. The Fort Worth rebranding is an indication of how effective this attack has been. The city explained that it was dropping the word “public” because of its “potentially negative connotation”. The Founding Fathers would be disconsolate. John Adams wrote in 1776, “There must be a positive passion for the public good, the public interest…established in the minds of the people, or there can be no republican government, nor any real liberty: and this public passion must be superior to all private passions.” Thomas Jefferson agreed, “I profess… that to be false pride which postpones the public good to any private or personal considerations.”Not at all.
Would it be improper for me to mention the Forth Worth rebranding initiative was mostly paid for by a large oil drilling company?
Help yourselves. We're full.
Argh. When will non-wingnuts learn that you can't deal with "negative connotations" of words by knuckling under to the RWNM's efforts to make them negative?
ReplyDeleteI do think the FDL post goes a little far. In particular, I'm not sure "private" automatically equals "good" in everyone's mind, even for very generous values of "everyone." Especially when verbed -- we got a lot of mileage out of "privatize" last time the Republicans tried to kill Social Security.
"Verbed?" Editor Asks:
ReplyDeleteIsn't going that extra step necessary for an FDL post?
It is the official editorial policy here that some of those "Pups" have amygdalas the size of any Glenn Beck fan's, & are given to similar fits of paranoia.
P.S.: "Verbed?"
You would have preferred verbified, perhaps? Verbulated? Verbificated?
ReplyDeleteYou just have to get yourself orientated.
Editor Pedantifies:
ReplyDeleteWe'd just prefer the "verbification" process never happen.