Saturday, February 2, 2019

George Carlin Places A Bet On The Language Barrier

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There's a condition in combat.
Most people know about it. 
It's when a fighting person's nervous system 
has been stressed to it's absolute
peak and maximum

Can't take anymore 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 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, 1950.

Madison Avenue was riding high by that time,
and the very same combat condition
was called
operational exhaustion

Hey, were up to eight syllables now!
And the humanity has been squeezed
completely 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 Viet Nam
which has only been over for about
sixteen or seventeen years,
and thanks to the lies and deceits
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 of still been
calling it shell shock,
some of those Viet Nam veterans
might have gotten the attention
they needed at the time.

I'll betcha
I'll betcha
***

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