what's in a word?

 John Adams once said, “Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, faction, and division in society.”

“Socialism”

            We’ve all heard political candidates (our current president included) be accused of being a “socialist,” as they scramble to defend themselves and come up with a response. But why is this such a feared word? What makes it an insult? A minimal amount of research could tell you that many the countries of the world with the highest standard of living are socialist countries such as Norway and Sweden, who in a 2005 Quality of life poll came in at numbers 3 and 5, respectively. The United States? Number 13.  Without even going into how well Socialism works in other countries: what about how it works in the United States? Some of the most tried and true, valued and relied upon American institutions could be considered “socialist” institutions: the military, the Police and Fire departments, the Library system, the Public school system. These are things that we pay taxes to pay for, and in return, all get free access to: an inherently socialist practice. Can you imagine the uproar if these things were privatized? If, all of a sudden, all schools were private? If you had to pay for the services of the police?

“Amnesty”

            Amnesty is a word that brings about a certain story to my mind. I’ll never forget, I was at a political debate in 2006 supporting Democratic candidate Tim Walz, a local politician running for Congress in Minnesota’s 1^st district. The opposing Republican candidate accused Tim of having “Amnesty” towards Mexican immigrants to the United States, and Tim was hard at work defending himself and his record, asserting that nothing he had ever said or done could point to him having “amnesty” for these people. Something about this entire situation really troubled me. Why was he having to defend himself in the first place? The word amnesty is defined in the dictionary as: an act of forgiveness for past offenses. In the thesaurus, synonyms are listed as forgiveness and mercy. What kind of society are we living in if politicians have to defend themselves against accusations of forgiveness and mercy? What kind of world are we living in if a synonym for those words is a dirty word?

“Liberal”

           Liberal is another word, that, as of late, has been hurled as an insult instead of used,  as it has been historically, a neutral, descriptive term to describe a political credo or belief. I found some of the definitions I found for this word in the dictionary especially interesting. The main definition I found for the word was “favorable to progress or reform.” This explains why people can be so afraid of the word… we all know how much people like change. It also seems to best represent its opposite nature from the word we think of as opposite to liberal, “conservative,” which means, then, “opposed to reform,” which I think even self-described conservatives would agree is accurate. Some other interesting definitions of the word liberal, from the dictionary? “free from prejudice or bigotry,” “open-minded or tolerant,” “generosity or willingness to give in large amounts” (i.e., a liberal donor). Synonyms listed in the Thesaurus include: progressive, broad-minded, and unprejudiced. Once again, I ask you: What kind of a society are we living in if a word whose synonyms are broad-minded and unprejudiced is being hurled as an insult on a regular basis?

“Feminist”

This one holds a lot of personal importance to me. I’ve found in my experiences and discussions with other women that they can rob themselves of the opportunity to feel empowered, to unite with other women to fight for their rights, and to feel like members of a supportive community by being afraid of calling themselves a “feminist,” and the negative connotations that have attached themselves to that word for years. So what is a “feminist,” then? Is it some burly mountain woman who thinks that all men should fall over and die, that women are the superior sex and that men are worthless? Of course not. Now, don’t get me wrong, women like this do exist. But to assume that all feminists are this way, or to assume that one must be this way in order to be a feminist, would be like assuming all men are chauvinists (of which, again, there are some out there.) Back to the dictionary! Listen up, because this is important: The dictionary definition of feminism is as follows: “The Doctrine advocating social, political, and all other rights of women equal to those of men.” Okay, key word there being EQUAL! I can’t stress that enough. Not superior, equal. All feminism ever was intended to be and continues to be is the struggle by women for equal rights to men. End of story. That’s for all women, everywhere, from any background, of any “race,” any denomination. The basic feminist credo is that women should be equal to men. And I think that’s something that all women should be able to feel like they can be a part of, and get behind.

None of these words are inherently “bad,” they’ve all just gotten attached to bad connotations, and we have the power to change those connotations. Make sure you’re using them, and other words, correctly, as they are defined... because our words = our power.