George Carlin was wrong on a lot of things, but he was dead on here:
I don’t like words that hide the truth. I don’t like words that conceal reality. I don’t like euphemisms, or euphemistic language. And American English is loaded with euphemisms. Because Americans have a lot of trouble dealing with reality. Americans have trouble facing the truth. So they invent the kind of a soft language to protect themselves from it. And it gets worse with every generation. For some reason, it just keeps getting worse.
I’ll give you an example of that. There’s a condition in combat, most people know about it, it’s when a fighting person’s nervous system has been stressed to its absolute peak and maximum, can’t take any more input. The nervous system has either snapped, or is about to snap. In the first World War, that condition was called “shell shock.” Simple, honest, direct language. Two syllables. “Shell shock.” Almost sounds like the guns themselves.
That was seventy years ago. Then a whole generation went by, and the second World War came along. And the very same combat condition was called “battle fatigue.” Four syllables now. Takes a little longer to say, doesn’t seem to hurt as much. “Fatigue” is a nicer word than “shock.” Shell shock. Battle fatigue. Then we had the war in Korea in 1950. Madison Avenue was riding high by that time. And the very same combat condition was called “operational exhaustion.”
Hey, we’re up to eight syllables now! And the humanity has been completely squeezed out of the phrase, it’s totally sterile now. Operational exhaustion, sounds like something that might happen to your car!
Then, of course, came the war in Vietnam, which has only been over for about sixteen or seventeen years. And thanks to the lies and deceit surrounding that war, I guess it’s no surprise that the very same condition was called “post-traumatic stress disorder.”
Still eight syllables, but we’ve added a hyphen! And the pain is completely buried under jargon. “Post-traumatic stress disorder.” I’ll bet you if we’d have still been calling it “Shell Shock”, some of those Vietnam veterans might have gotten the attention they needed at the time. I’ll bet you that. I’ll bet you that.
George Carlin was pretty good on a lot of things. Some might have found him harsh and he was a liberal douche, but, the man flat said what he wanted and didn’t care if it pissed anybody off.
Men used to talk like men. Especially with other men. Of course, apply the niceties in the company of ladies but when it came time to talk business you got down to brass tacks linguistically. I work in an office environment now and I’ve found myself, when talking with male co-workers, letting go and just saying “it.” Four letter words and all. Feels good sometimes, too.