{"id":927,"date":"2014-02-17T10:18:15","date_gmt":"2014-02-16T21:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=927"},"modified":"2014-03-11T20:23:50","modified_gmt":"2014-03-11T07:23:50","slug":"change-but-not-always-for-the-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=927","title":{"rendered":"Change. But not always for the better."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"papilio<\/a>The meanings of words change with time.\u00a0 It has always been thus.\u00a0 And to fight it makes little sense.\u00a0 But to recognise it, and to appreciate the implications, well, that is another matter.<\/p>\n

A few years ago, the most common meaning of anticipate<\/i> was \u2018to expect something to happen and take steps, in advance, to mitigate its impact\u2019.\u00a0 An astute general anticipated an attack on the left flank and deployed forces to repel the attackers.<\/p>\n

But, these days, anticipate is more often used in place of \u2018expect\u2019 or \u2018await\u2019.\u00a0 A breathless TV reporter tells us that some entertainer is about to embark on a \u2018much-anticipated tour\u2019.\u00a0 No troops are deployed to repel him (or her).\u00a0 Although sometimes that should be an option.<\/p>\n

Unique<\/i> used to mean \u2018something of which there was only one\u2019.\u00a0 But these days it can often be used to mean \u2018slightly remarkable\u2019.\u00a0 And whereas once there was no such thing as \u2018a little bit unique\u2019 \u2013 an object or event was either unique or it was not \u2013 these days we encounter objects and events that are a little bit unique on an almost daily basis.<\/p>\n

When I was a child, an epidemic<\/i> was \u2018a widespread occurrence of a disease in a particular community at a particular time\u2019.\u00a0 I can recall polio epidemics and influenza epidemics.\u00a0 Neither was pleasant.<\/p>\n

But then propagandists who wanted to invest certain non-disease conditions (of which they did not approve) with a similar gravity started using epidemic in a metaphoric sense.\u00a0 Suddenly we had \u2018an epidemic of obesity\u2019, even though obesity was not \u2013 and is not \u2013 an actual disease.<\/p>\n

The difference between the change in the use of anticipate and the change in the use of epidemic is subtle yet profound.\u00a0 In the case of anticipate, the users were just a bit lazy.\u00a0 Sloppy, perhaps.\u00a0 But they meant no harm.<\/p>\n

However, in the case of epidemic, the users knew exactly what they were doing.\u00a0 They were trying to mislead us.\u00a0 They wanted us to believe that obesity was on a par with polio and diphtheria. \u00a0They wanted us to panic \u2013 and then do whatever they told us to do in order to save our skins.<\/p>\n

Whenever you find yourself presented with the findings and recommendations of some fanatical \u2018body of betters\u2019, it\u2019s a good idea to pay attention to each and every word.\u00a0 The chances that much of it will be carefully-contrived obfuscation are extremely high.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The meanings of words change with time.\u00a0 It has always been thus.\u00a0 And to fight it makes little sense.\u00a0 But to recognise it, and to appreciate the implications, well, that is another matter. A few years ago, the most common … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=927"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":928,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927\/revisions\/928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}