by Tom Engelhardt et al

Mother Jones

03/29/05

For the last few years we have been ruled by lexicographers. Never has an administration spent so much time creating, defining, or redefining terms, perhaps because no one (since George Orwell) has grasped the power and possibility that lay hidden in plain sight in the naming and renaming of words. In a sense, our post-9/11 moment began with two definitions: The Bush administration named our global enemy 'terrorism' and called the acts that followed a 'war,' which was soon given the moniker 'the global war on terror' (later reduced to the acronym GWOT, also known as World War IV), which was then given an instant future -- being defined as a 'generational struggle' that was still to come. All this, along with 'war' itself, was simply announced rather than officially 'declared...

http://tinyurl.com/6p5c7


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp