JARGON...
WHO NEEDS IT?
Some years
ago an article in a national newspaper suggested that we should have a Buy
Nothing Day. The idea was supposed to be a riposte to the, even then (2003),
current jargon word 'retail therapy'. The article claimed that Saturday was one
of the biggest shopping days of the year and presumably as hazardous an
experience as it is now. I think here of the carelessly steered overloaded
trolleys, the erratically driven mobility buggy, the mobile phone addict etc. all
then just as today.
It is
possible that people were less discriminating in their selection and quantity
of things then, as the so called credit crunch had yet to hit town. However in
my view a Buy Nothing Day is almost as fatuous a suggestion as is the jargon
'retail therapy' to describe the above experience as good for us.
Germaine
Greer, that verbal scourge of anyone or anything which she thinks requires her
correction and therefore toward whom she spits a mouthful of disapproving
nails, brought retail therapy to my unsuspecting ears in a recent radio talk
she gave.
Yes, we do
need to be fed and watered regularly and this may involve a visit to one of
these oases of modern life but does a fancy jargon word really improve my
health with the experience? One definition of jargon in the Concise Oxford
Dictionary is 'gibberish' a fitting description maybe for what our politically
correct masters in their deliberations seem to think is healthful for our
lives.
Next time
you feel obliged to visit the local Therapy Emporium and join with the other
believers in one of our modern cathedrals of commerce take a moment at the
checkout to reflect on this bit of wisdom from the distant past: “Two things I
beg of you... keep falsehood and lies far from me... for fear that surrounded by
plenty I say, 'The Lord - who is the Lord?'” (Proverbs 30.7ff) The Jerusalem Bible
[NIV,
LDS,
KJV]
Beware
jargon that may lead us to think that we need what we need not at all. In the
process we might overlook what we may really need to be seeking.
Fr David
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They love me! Jack Yeats at Compton Verney
- see page 9 for full details of the exhibition.
Max Jordan's aubergine penguin
See page 5 for the Show report.
Improving the shining hour (Isaac Watts)
See report on Amasango School page 4
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