The Perversion of Language
2.5
supernatural sanctions.
Its most obvious casualty has been language. Tendencies once universally castigated as moral failings mutate into necessities of social progress. Selfishness becomes a prized commercial resource; falsehood reinvents itself as public information; perversions of various kinds unabashedly claim the status of civil rights. Under appropriate euphemisms, greed, lust, indolence, pride—even violence—acquire not merely broad acceptance but social and economic value. Ironically, as words have been drained of meaning, so have the very material comforts and acquisitions for which truth has been casually sacrificed.
Tendencies once universally castigated as moral failings
... mutate into necessities of social progress.
Selfishness
… becomes a prized commercial resource
Falsehood
... reinvents itself as public information
Perversions of various kinds
… unabashedly claim the statues of civil rights
(Under appropriate euphemisms) greed, lust, indolence, pride—even violence
…acquire not merely broad acceptance but social and economic value
Ironically, as words have been drained of meaning, so have the very material comforts and acquisitions for which truth has been casually sacrificed.