Language is necessary for a civilized society. Language needs to be reliable. We cannot do business, cannot function without reliable communications, expressed by both words and numbers.
Yet, it can be a struggle to accurately interpret some of the things we read in national media. Headlines are often “hyped” or sensationalized. The recent weather-related events produced some examples.
Referring to the California wildfires one headline asked, “Is it unsafe to live in California?” Historically, cities have burned by the hundreds. There is even a word to describe a major city fire: conflagration. Modern high pressure water lines and building codes ended that problem — except for military fire-bombing of cities.
Our planetary home has a history of volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, violent storms, floods, and starvation inducing droughts. The planet has been struck by objects from space. Whether earth is a safe place to live is irrelevant. It is the only place we have to live. Consequently, we adapt as we learn and as technology permits.
We know that California has earthquakes, too, but they also occur in many other places. There was a powerful earthquake at New Madrid, Mo., in 1811, and Charleston, S.C., had a powerful quake in 1886. Other screaming weather event headlines included “biblical flood,” and “monstrous storm,” and “storm of the century.” There might be a bit of exaggeration in those headlines.
We misuse the language of war to describe ordinary events. It looked like a “war zone.” We “battle,” “conquer,” and “combat” things. Or, we resort to the “nuclear option.” And, in politics, someone “slammed” his opponent. Emotional hype is not helpful.
We are judged by the company we keep and defined by the language we use.