Ralph Keyes, author of many books including the new Euphemania: Our Love Affair with Euphemisms, talks about the prevalence of euphemisms in our culture—particularly when talking politics.Download that podcast here. The best review on the book that we've read so far, comes out of the National Post (Canada). Stephen Marche, there, covered the title, had these closing statements:
Pierre Bourdieu, the French sociologist, explained our tendency to euphemism as an expression of human selfishness: It gives us “the profit of saying and the profit of denying what is said.” The slipperiness of euphemisms explains their attraction to politicians, who hate making enemies among potential voters. The tendency to be inoffensive in language can have unfortunate consequences, however, both personally and politically. A recent article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, “Who you calling obese, Doc?” debated the merits of adding “medically” in front of “obese” in an attempt to soften the stigma of the word: “Though lapsing into euphemism can soften a bleak diagnosis, it can also lead to confusion. Euphemism is no friend of precision. Thus doctors are sometimes faced with a dilemma: Should I be sensitive or accurate?” Even in the most crucial decisions of our life, we avoid direct language. “Human kind cannot bear very much reality,” T.S. Eliot wrote. Euphemania, while proving Eliot’s statement, also offers an appealing countertruth. The cowardice of euphemism is always defeated in the end. Everyone with a brain eventually works out what is being said. And then the codes become more amusing than confounding. An obituary of an English aristocrat once noted that the deceased lord was “an uncompromisingly direct ladies’ man.” Everybody knew that meant he was a public flasher. You just needed to know the code.Find that National Post review here. The History Channel also featured the author and book; see that webpage here.
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