fpdorchak

Okay, I guess this might be at the heart of much of the E-Anything question:  c’mon on, do you REALLY need it?

The arguable statement could be made, that, hey, the decision’s already been made—but has it?

Look at Borders.

As Humans we all exhibit moments of rather interesting behavior.  Eh, it’s what we do…who we are. New stuff helps keep life interesting. Distracts us from the everyday minutiae of our ofttimes droll existences. Sure, some of it can actually improve life, but with all this “improvement” also comes a loss of relaxation, hard-won moolah (especially in these challenging economic times), and something else to have to worry about, carry, and sell our souls to. And the continual spending in our current economic climate, this really baffles me—how people will continue to spend and spend, buying all these new toys when they’re losing jobs. Another argument can be made that people have to pump their hard-earned money back into the economy to have it survive…but where does that “end,” so to speak?

And there are so many arguments.

Here’s another way to look at all this gadgetry. I’m not a Luddite in any sense of the word, but am always planning for the future—and I’d really rather plan to have some dough left at the back-end of my life, rather than having to try to keep up with the latest technogadget and keep spending more and more money on something else I have to continue paying for long after the initial point-of-purchase….

Do we really need all this extra stuff?  Or is someone else is just telling us we “need” it. Or are we just looking for some way to fill in all the spaces of our lives where we used to be left with our own thoughts, because we’re too scared or lonely or (yes!) lazy to do something else…and gadgets are easy? We can hold them in our little hands and look oh-so-danged important. Feel important, so tied in with the rest of the world with CNN and Fox News.

Okay, feeling important is no-so-small a thing, true. We all need a sense of self worth, true.

But, look, Borders supposedly sold stuff in the public interest—then why did it die?

Because public interest waned.

Everyone out there (me included) decided not to spend our hard-earned income in their corporation, that’s why. Whether or not Borders screwed over their employees (as a recent August 1^st Publishers Weekly editorial suggested), is moot, because the end result is that people simply stopped spending money in there. That means that each and every one of us made a powerful statement and brought down a corporation (again, internal struggles notwithstanding—there are a lot of businesses out there not well run, yet they still survive…).

So, it seems to me, that it’s not just a matter of “them” (other people) trying to figure out what makes E-Anything work, it’s the individual. Do any of us really need any or all of these gadgets to survive?

No, we don’t. Not really.

If there’s no “need” there’s no issue.

For whatever reason, everyone’s funneling money into hand-held computers instead of books and magazines, etc. It’s an individual choice, not a corporation’s. My parents didn’t need to know where I was every second, nor did I need to know what the stock prices, breaking news, local weather, or whatever when I was a kid. I found stuff out in other ways after I was done playing or working outside. Done reading a book, or riding a bike. Chopping wood. Yes, life changes, progression should be made as a species, and so many other arguments, but, come on, do you really need all these gadgets at the expense of sanity, relaxation, income, or (in our neck of the woods) books?

It’s a choice.

If you don’t want books, buy gadgets. It’s that easy, and that seems to be the case. Though I believe it’s a big enough world for both. Choices can be redirected to other modes of improvement, and if everyone continues to focus on gadgets, that’s exactly what everyone will get.

Okay, I’m a little behind in my reading and all, but caught up on a great PW Q&A (July 11^th issue, page 44, for those who still read hardcopy…) with linguist and author John McWhorter (Ph.D.). And he said something that really got my attention, something’s that’s bugged the heck outta me from day one of first seeing it:

Yea old (well, actually not all that old..) “he/she” placement.

Yeah, the absofrigginglutely patent  absurdity of alternately using “he” and “she” in articles with no obvious gender references.

WTF?!

Mr. McWhorter’s position, and I wholeheartedly agree with it, is that the rigid use of “they” as always being plural is false. That, in fact (and he’s a linguist, mind you) “they” has actually been employed singularly in earlier stages of the English language. Now, I’m not a mechanics-and-structure guy when it comes to writing, I’m more the gray area stuff, like write till you’re bleeding, then if you’re not dead, what the heck are you stopping for? kinda guy. Do your passion, do what works for you, all that pseudo-fluffy-made-gritty-by-my-take-on-things kinda guy. But some things just bug the Be-HEY-zuess out me. Any time I’d see a “she” in an article followed (for no Godly reason) by a “he,” followed by a “she,” followed by a…I just wanna frigging rip those pages out of whatever I’m reading and burn the damned text.

Really? Are we just trying to be PC with gender use, here?  I honestly don’t care if you use all of one OR the other, but–ugh!–make a frigging decision, fer chrissakes, and stick to it!

I, I freely admit, have always been a “they” kinda guy.

I use it freely, and to many a critique by others who know far more (and far less) than I. Whether or not it was correct to use in my time or place, it (you’re gonna love this, you Grammarian purists out there!) felt right.

Yeah, I said it:  FELT RIGHT.

Oh, that was so freeing!

Like I’m streaking across the Internet (oops, clothing check: nope, still attired)!

Another Mr. McWhorter position that also merits note is that language changes; in his beautifully chosen words (and think about the choice of words he actually used),  it is “…a chaotic, growing garden.”

So, let’s put all that misplaced criticism where it’ll actually do some good, and fertilize that garden….