Post hoc ergo propter hoc
In conjunction with trying to control how we think, act, how our children are raised & what we put in the dustbin, local councils, that repository of petty minded officialdom, are now trying to mandate how we communicate
A number of local councils in Britain have banned their staff from using Latin words, because they say they might confuse people. Several local authorities have ruled that phrases like "vice versa", "pro rata", and even "via" should not be used, in speech or in writing
Latin, definitely a doubleplusungood & given that it started to be absorbed into the then Middle English language over 2,000 years ago it is about time it was purged from modern Ingerlish … innnit? Inter alia, it is hardly very cool Britannia.
This is a perfect exemplar of the dumming down of one-Great Britain that we have sadly come to expect from the political pondlife who are as ever waving the banner of class warfare…
Some local councils say using Latin is elitist and discriminatory, because some people might not understand it - particularly if English is not their first language.
Ah, the “D-word” & absolutely right. If Norman Numpty can’t understand terms like vice versa or pro-rata, it is critical that they don’t feel discriminated against … not when we should be persecuting them for being so terminally stupid. After all, in what little remains of Brown’s Britain we are short of many many things including working capital, but stupid people we have in rich abundance. Their persecution can only be pro bono publico.
My default reaction upon receiving any official correspondence is to either chuck it in the wood burner or to give it to puppy to chew. However even I have to confess that it isn’t too unreasonable for our hydra headed government to write to me in English & within that definition of English, to use phrases that have been in common usage for the last 20 centuries.
However the Thoughtpolice are set on a policy of reductio ad absurdum. The whole concept that by banning commonly used phrases so that Joe Public will can suddenly understand the reams of official gobbledygook that we get sent is yet another case of the Logical Fallacy; hence the title of this post.
Comments
But it's not Norman Numpty, it's Abdul Numpty; not Joe Public, but Mustapha Public.
How racist and discriminatory to expect others to fit in with our ways once here, better to just dumb everyone else down so no one feels 'excluded'
Posted by: Robert the Biker | November 4, 2008 9:03 AM
To quote my favorite saying "Si tractum non sit,noli id reficere"--"if it ain't broke,don't fix it." Thanks to the DM for the translation it been 50+ years since i last studied latin.
Posted by: ajdshootist | November 4, 2008 10:15 AM
As I remarked over at The Englishman's, now we see why they are getting rid of Habeus Corpus.
Posted by: Jeff Wood | November 4, 2008 11:47 AM
Flocci non faceo - spelling is wrong, but it means 'I do not give that the value of a hair' (If I remember right).
Posted by: CJA | November 4, 2008 12:00 PM
It's the thought of Latin being elitist and discriminatory for those who do not have *English* as a first language that is causing me cognitive dissonance.
Posted by: rpg | November 4, 2008 8:20 PM