Semantic Silliness

I think it was Bill O'Reilly (FOX News) who called my attention to the insistence in some quarters on linguistic Political Correctness, namely, the use of phrases such as "Holiday" trees instead of "Christmas" trees by some businesses and institutions.

Now, I confess that Bill has entertained me pretty consistently for several years, because he and I both know his "fair and balanced news" is really a not-too-subtle form of entertainment couched as news opinion--ostensibly without "spin" (wink wink). With the exception of an occasional foray outside this reasonable formula, Bill's turn of a phrase, and his aggressive--sometimes ranting--style often hits current domestic issues squarely on the head. And you can listen to and watch O'Reilly without expending much effort.

Now he says the fight over retaining "Christmas" in our seasonal vocabulary is "the centerpiece in a cultural war" between secularists and religionists. C'mon, O'Reilly--isn't that taking semantics to a whole new (silly or perhaps dangerous) level? But now you've worn out my easy acceptance of the various causes you love to take up, by virtue of your daily whining about how evil the expunging is of the word "Christmas" from advertising modules used by some businesses-- like Wal-Mart and other biggies. You really got my goat when you began calling for a boycott of businesses that wouldn't bend to your thinly disguised theological campaign. I suspect you know that you're playing on the emotions of people who themselves don't realize how powerful identifying ideas with words can be. You're prepping them for taking up the sword against "the Devil" when the time comes (and of course, we know who the Devil is, don't we?)

Although the word "Christmas" or any other linguistic device referring directly or indirectly to "God" is subject to debate among linguistics and other academic pinheads, it is really a non-issue that religionists are trying to raise to the level of a social crisis. Let the nitwits, including the ACLU, militate on the grounds of "church and state separation" if that's what provides fuller employment and mischievous amusement.

But leave middle America out of artificially created turmoil. Left to the "regular folks" who make up the backbone of this country, they will determine what words they will use and which they won't. I wager few of the "regular folks" could care less what word Wal-Mart uses or doesn't use--they'll patronize them if the price and service are right.

As Martin Luther said of his heresy in translating the Bible from Latin into German, "language is that found in the marketplace." Whether "Christmas" and related words should survive in the American lexicon will be determined by the people speaking the language--not the linguistic prigs who are wielding all kinds of axes intended to engineer society in their own private visions. Let's let Luther's dictum work and get on with any of the many more serious issues.