Interested? I am.

Sometimes, Your Humble Blogger doesn't come across an article until it's too late to link to it. Usually, I'll just mention it to people within earshot. But I liked this piece by Geoffrey Nunberg enough to seek out his web page, and it turns out he has it posted there. So even if you don't have a copy of last week's New York Times Week in Review, or access to Lexis-Nexis, you can learn about special interests.

Mr. Nunberg I have liked for years due to his bits on Fresh Air; I remember (possibly incorrectly) his pointing out the oddity of "Yessssss!" being the only celebratory interjection ending in a sibilant, and sounding a lot less jubilant to his ears than Olé or Bravo or Viva or Hurray!

Anyway, the piece in question, called "The Lost Vocubulary of Disinterested Politics" (New York Times September 14, 2003, Week In Review, p. 3), is about the evolution of the term 'interest' in political rhetoric. It's something that's bugged me for a few years, as it goes along with my annoyance at the acceptance of ad hominem arguments as not only legitimate (which they are) but conclusive (which they are not). At one time, people talked about the railroad interest or the coal interest; if the coal interest was behind a politician, well, you knew what he was likely to support and what he was likely to oppose. When the term became less specific, it oddly enough became more general; if a politician was accused of bending to special interests, he might be supporting Big Business or labor, gay rights or the Christian Coalition, abortion rights activists or those who would ban abortion. In other words, it's a meaningless charge. It has come to mean simply that a politican is on the take, no matter from whom or to what purpose.

Of course, very few legislators are actually on the take, in the sense that they accept money to vote for things they actually oppose (or vice versa). It's far more complicated than that, and the old terms were more useful for explaining things than the new ones. Thanks to Mr. Nunberg for pointing that out.

Redintegro Iraq,
-Vardibidian.