The Pleasure Of HatingThe pleasure of hating, like a poisonous mineral, eats into the heart of religion, and turns it to rankling spleen and bigotry; it makes patriotism an excuse for carrying fire, pestilence, and famine into other lands (and other parts of the self-styled patriot's country. J.):
it leaves to virtue nothing but the spirit of censoriousness, and a narrow, jealous, inquisitorial watchfulness over the acrions and motives of others. What have the different sects, creeds, doctrines in religion been but so many pretexts set up for men to wrangle, to quarrel, to tear one another to pieces about, like a target as a mark to shoot at.-
William Hazlitt (1778–1830) on The Pleasure Of Hating (full text)I can't say that I hate anything or anyone. Some may say that I'm intolerant because I don't suffer fools gladly, and that I'm liable to explode, generally quietly now and only as a safety valve letting off steam, at those who impinge on my space, be it physical or aural.
And in Jakarta, there are loads of those types of irritations, much like getting sand in your socks.
Thinking of which, and just to point out that it's only fair to have a go at fools elsewhere, consider Dubai, where a new luxury hotel will
refrigerate the beach.
Soheil Abedian, president of Palazzo Versace, said: "We will suck the heat out of the sand to keep it cool enough to lie on. This is the kind of luxury that top people want. The super rich don't want to walk on scalding sand."Whilst the rich and infamous get on with their destructive fukyoo lifestyles ~
each person living in Dubai has a carbon footprint of more than 44 tons of CO2 a year ~ others are over-reaching themselves to be politically correct.
When I were a lad growing up in Sarf Lunnon, the UK was predominantly Christian. I was started off in the Baptist church down the road where my Sunday School teacher was jilted by local lad Reg Smith, more popularly known as
Marty Wilde. I later 'joined' the Church of England because it had a Friday night youth club where I first played indoor hockey and, by sheer happy chance - she was blocking the doorway, I first encountered a breast.
I could have been a Presbyterian, a Roman Catholic,a Congregationalist, or perhaps a Methodist in my madness. It was all a matter of geography, and the fact that my parents wanted some time to themselves. Sunday was a good day for that.
All this is to point out that I am imbued with an understanding of Christianity and its terminology because it's part of my heritage. And if I'd been brought up here in Indonesia, predominantly Muslim with a variety of differing interpretations, I would have accepted and generally understood this country's heritage. (And I could argue that I already have and do.)
Now, thanks to our earlier colonial history and the more recent migrations of folk seeking political and economic freedom, Britain makes claims to be a multi-cultural society. However, much like Indonesia, it has yet to understand, let alone come to terms with the notion of pluralism, Unity In Diversity.
I state this because a new edition of a popular children's dictionary has jettisoned a number of words relating to Christianity in favour of words such as
MP3.
The publisher, Oxford University Press, claims the changes to the Junior Dictionary have been made to reflect the fact that Britain is a modern, multicultural, multifaith society. But academics and head teachers said that the changes to the 10,000 word Junior Dictionary could mean that children lose touch with Britain's heritage."We have a certain Christian narrative which has given meaning to us over the last 2,000 years. To say it is all relative and replaceable is questionable," said Professor Alan Smithers, the director of the centre for education and employment at Buckingham University. "The word selections are a very interesting reflection of the way childhood is going, moving away from our spiritual background and the natural world and towards the world that information technology creates for us."An analysis of the word choices made by the dictionary lexicographers has revealed that entries from
devil to
willow have been axed (as has
bacon. Sorry
Del.). Instead, words such as
chatroom,
celebrity, and
blog have taken their place. Obviously I approve of the last one (but not the first two).
As Hazlitt recognised, language related to religion has the power to induce "the spirit of censoriousness".
I trust that OUP continues to market their other dictionaries without removing such well-loved words as
elf and
goblin,
dandelion,
gooseberry and
marzipan,
piglet,
porcupine and
porpoise. Oh, and
ass.
Read the full lists of words removed and their replacements
here.
The comments are in
chronological (an added word) order - from the bottom of the page.
Number two echoes Hazlitt:
As George Orwell pointed out, the aim of NewSpeak was to continually destroy words so that heretical thought, so far as it was based on language, became impossible.
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