Anti-Concepts
Posted by conscious1978 10 years, 10 months ago to Philosophy
In Rand's _Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal_, she exposes the ploy of using "anti-concepts" in the essay, "Extremism," or The Art of Smearing.
"It consists of creating an artificial, unnecessary, and (rationally) unusable term, designed to replace and obliterate some legitimate concepts—a term which sounds like a concept, but stands for a "package-deal" of disparate, incongruous, contradictory elements taken out of any logical conceptual order or context, a "package-deal" whose (approximately) defining characteristic is always a non-essential. This last is the essence of the trick."
Also, she states:
"The purpose of 'anti-concepts' is to obliterate certain concepts without public discussion; and, as a means to that end, to make public discussion unintelligible, and to induce the same disintegration in the mind of any man who accepts them, rendering him incapable of clear thinking or rational judgment. No mind is better than the precision of its concepts."
She wrote that in 1965, but the technique has been perfected and widely used since. It is difficult to hear and see so many excellent words that have been the target of this type of dishonesty. Some concepts have been disconnected from their labels via unwarranted negative connotations, or their labels (words) have been co-opted by the smearing use of anti-concepts.
As a few examples, consider how these concepts have been abused and how they are generally interpreted by most people today:
Capitalism
Business
Free markets
Profits
Objectivism
Love
Patriot
Theory
There are many more to add to the list. For starters, could we please try to refrain from corrupting "capitalism" any longer with the anti-concept of "crony capitalism"? :) Let's call it cronyism, political cronyism, or corruption - and try to expose both ends of that unethical equation.
"It consists of creating an artificial, unnecessary, and (rationally) unusable term, designed to replace and obliterate some legitimate concepts—a term which sounds like a concept, but stands for a "package-deal" of disparate, incongruous, contradictory elements taken out of any logical conceptual order or context, a "package-deal" whose (approximately) defining characteristic is always a non-essential. This last is the essence of the trick."
Also, she states:
"The purpose of 'anti-concepts' is to obliterate certain concepts without public discussion; and, as a means to that end, to make public discussion unintelligible, and to induce the same disintegration in the mind of any man who accepts them, rendering him incapable of clear thinking or rational judgment. No mind is better than the precision of its concepts."
She wrote that in 1965, but the technique has been perfected and widely used since. It is difficult to hear and see so many excellent words that have been the target of this type of dishonesty. Some concepts have been disconnected from their labels via unwarranted negative connotations, or their labels (words) have been co-opted by the smearing use of anti-concepts.
As a few examples, consider how these concepts have been abused and how they are generally interpreted by most people today:
Capitalism
Business
Free markets
Profits
Objectivism
Love
Patriot
Theory
There are many more to add to the list. For starters, could we please try to refrain from corrupting "capitalism" any longer with the anti-concept of "crony capitalism"? :) Let's call it cronyism, political cronyism, or corruption - and try to expose both ends of that unethical equation.
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I love the land owner concept, as those who own land really do have a stake the country, although we'd subdividing land into square feet to get a vote.
Thanks. Maybe you heard "crapitalism" from me, since I use it routinely in the Gulch
I would like to think the word "capitalism" still has a chance to survive while attached to the concept. If not, we'll have to create a new one that is scrubbed of recent generations of dirt.
All this assumes, of course, that the other parties are in it for the truth, or just to argue.
Begulation
Capitolism
Levytation
Green$
Socialist = Liberal
tea party (for racist klan people)
immigration (for invasion)
reform (for amnesty)
music (for rap)
talk radio ( for right-wing lies)
healthcare (for health insurance)
settled science (for east anglia dry-lab)
smidgen (for vast majority)
climate change (for global warming)
economics (for targeted bribery)
social justice (for progressivism)
dogwhistle (for leper's bell of an approaching looter)
etc.
-- j
They should provide a shorthand to the meaning being communicated, but unless I'm talking with my friends who I know have similar politics I try to just talk about specific issues rather than using labels. "Socialism" is the most problematic, as soon as that word is mentioned somebody is always eager to define it for everyone, and the conversation degrades with the actual issue getting ignored.
"But that's not what socialism means..." (oh no, here we go again!)
Advice accepted.
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