![]() Like something that might happen to your car. It was absolutely sterile: operational exhaustion. "By the early 1950s, the Korean War had come along, and the very same condition was being called 'operational exhaustion.' The phrase was up to eight syllables now, and any last traces of humanity had been completely squeezed out of it. 'Fatigue' is a nicer word than 'shock.' Shell shock! Battle fatigue. "Then a generation passed, and in World War II the same combat condition was called 'battle fatigue.' Four syllables now takes a little longer to say. It almost sounds like the guns themselves. In World War I it was called 'shell shock.' Simple, honest, direct language. There’s a condition in combat that occurs when a soldier is completely stressed out and is on the verge of a nervous collapse. George Carlin on "Shell Shock" and "Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder" Giridharadas, "Language as a Blunt Tool of the Digital Age." The New York Times, Jan. But when they call you, even at dinnertime, then it’s a 'courtesy call.'" When you dial into 'customer care,' they care very little. When it 'manages stakeholders,' it could be lobbying or bribing. When it is 'right-sizing' or finding 'synergies,' it may well be firing people. "When a company is 'levering up,' it often means, in regular language, that it is spending money it doesn’t have.(George Carlin, "Euphemisms." Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics, 1990) Constipation became occasional irregularity." The CIA doesn't kill anybody anymore. Used cars became previously owned transportation. ![]() "Sometime during my life toilet paper became bathroom tissue.
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