Good use of words

You cannot name anything except by name. (Boileau)

Now, for a long time, we have seen the word disappear “Riot” replaced by “Harassment”, the term “Drug trafficking” by that “Parallel economy”, word “Delinquent” by that of “Young savage” and the term “Lawless area” by that of “Sensitive district”.

Remember, that Mr. Arnaud Montebourg had once participated in this occultation of language by being indignant at the word “Scum” employed by Nicolas Sarkozy. Did he have another to offer us? How could he think that this word was inadequate to designate traffickers, manipulators, arsonists and sometimes criminals?

Too many fine minds in fact were indignant at the martial and voluntarist character implied by the use of such a word.

This reflection is of the same tobacco as that which in 1968 declared that learning to spell helped maintain order.

It is just as stupid to explain this violence by finding the cause in the necessary words and the indispensable action of the one who was then Minister of the Interior.

A cat can only be called a spade and therefore the correctness of words must naturally lead to the correctness of things.

Jacques Limouzy

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