I've always had a problem with words like "inappropriate" and "unacceptable", but I could never pinpoint exactly why. Now, thanks to this piece in Prospect, I know why.
No words are more typical of our moral culture than “inappropriate” and “unacceptable.” They seem bland, gentle even, yet they carry the full force of official power. When you hear them, you feel that you are being tied up with little pieces of soft string.
Inappropriate and unacceptable began their modern careers in the 1980s as part of the jargon of political correctness. They have more or less replaced a number of older, more exact terms: coarse, tactless, vulgar, lewd. They encompass most of what would formerly have been called “improper” or “indecent.” An affair between a teacher and a pupil that was once improper is now inappropriate; a once indecent joke is now unacceptable.
This linguistic shift is revealing. Improper and indecent express moral judgements, whereas inappropriate and unacceptable suggest breaches of some purely social or professional convention. Such “non-judgemental” forms of speech are tailored to a society wary of explicit moral language. As liberal pluralists, we seek only adherence to rules of the game, not agreement on fundamentals. What was once an offence against decency must be recast as something akin to a faux pas.
But this new, neutralised language does not spell any increase in freedom. When I call your action indecent, I state a fact that can be controverted. When I call it inappropriate, I invoke an institutional context—one which, by implication, I know better than you. Who can gainsay the Lord Chamberlain when he pronounces it “inappropriate” to wear jeans to the Queen’s garden party? This is what makes the new idiom so sinister. Calling your action indecent appeals to you as a human being; calling it inappropriate asserts official power.
3 comments:
Did you notice that when the comment box opens it says: "Your comments are welcomed, especially if they are smart, polite and relevant. If they are vulgar or inappropriate, they will stay where they came from. Enjoy."?
Good catch, anonymous. I changed it. Enjoy.
This is great. Thank you both for your unintended collaboration in bring to light something we all do so brilliantly and often without being aware of it. Making judgments or pointing fingers at a situation or more commonly, another person without first seeing where that thread is connected to our own thoughts and actions is something we overlook within ourselves but see clearly outside ourselves.
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