Monday, March 28, 2011

Palin And The Art Of English Maintenance

Writing the occasional column in support of Governor Palin is a challenge, a delight, a source of anger and one particularly unexpected and delightful pleasure.


A challenge because, given the subject, I am pressured to write something which approaches the qualities of the person. This is easy in one respect, that is because Palin has so many positive attributes, does so many interesting things, responds to her own challenges in a forthright, sometimes heroic fashion, that the ideas for commentary flow readily. 


On the other hand it is these very qualities which challenge one to rise to the highest level of commentary that they demand of a writer which is a significant task-for myself anyway.


The subject is of course a delight to consider in herself and, if I do manage to finish an article, which I feel goes some of the way in making an insightful commentary which will, in some small way, advance her progress, or at least negate some negativity about her, I am delighted.


The articles can provide a source of anger, beyond the frustrations of not creating something worthwhile. This is because I have to, from time to time, deal with some negative article or comment about Palin which, even having to refer and review that sort of thing, can affect ones mood. Challenging and destroying the negative commentary is cathartic in the end, but the journey is troublesome.


There is one unexpected pleasure, and reward actually, which encompasses all the other aspects in itself-challenge/delight/anger, and that is the "maintenance" of the English language in trying to craft an article worthy of the subject and the readers attention. 


In doing so I find I have to refer to source material which includes in-depth articles and books by great and deeply intellectual writers, some whose language borders on the archaic, particularly the philosophers like John Stuart Mill and Locke, and economists like Hayek and Friedman.


I consider I have a wide vocabulary which serves me well in my modes of expression but in reading the greats I am immediately humbled by the reality of the smallness of  my word storehouse and how poorly I serve those who read my columns. 


The English language has such wonderful depth and breadth of expression. So many words have a similar meaning to others but there are subtle differences which convey a slight change of meaning. Then there are, to me at least, obscure words which seem to stand alone and convey deep meaning and a complexity which drives one to the dictionary to understand the very dictionary definition of the word.


In just the last few weeks, in researching a few columns for Palin articles, I have come across these words which I list as an example of the challenge and delight they (and she) present. 


I apologize if to some readers they, the words, are so obvious that they may wonder at my lack of depth, but if others have, like myself either not heard of them before, or were vaguely or incorrectly in understanding of them, I hope they too will enjoy discovering and using them too. Most of all I thank Governor Palin for being the person she is who so inspires ordinary folk like myself to rise to their best level-a quality in her I look forward to America sharing when she is president.


Neotic/Induction/(evidence) Aliunde/Nominalism/Tabula Rasa/Ratiocination/Quale/Demiourgos/Determinism


Just as an example of one definition, Determinism is defined so:


"Determinism (specifically causal determinism) is the concept that events within a given paradigm are bound by causality in such a way that any state (of an object or event) is completely, or at least to some large degree,determined by prior states. In physics, this principle is known as cause-and-effect."



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