So, etymological fallacy

[conuly]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymological_fallacy

That's what people are doing when they say things like "Marriage is DEFINED as between a man and a woman so THEREFORE we can't change the law to allow same-sex marriage".

People do something similar when they pass off old lines like "The Chinese word for "crisis" is made of "opportunity" and "danger" so we can do something in a crisis!" like new wisdom.

I have two thoughts about this. First, if people are just doing it to make a rhetorical point ("there's an opportunity in every crisis!") rather than because they actually think their reasoning is valid, I don't see how it makes a difference. Sure, it'd be a lot simpler to just say what they're thinking outright without resorting to dubious etymology to do so, but whatever.

Second, about that crisis/danger/opportunity one: Why don't these people do it regarding the English word "emergency" and "emergence"? What's so appealing about Chinese, a language most of them don't even speak and wouldn't know if they were wrong?

Well, I think I answered my question there, sorry about that!

Comments

[leora.livejournal.com]

The word "crisis" is made up of two words, "cry" and "sis". Thus in every crisis there is a risk that your sister will be upset.

I think they use Chinese because of the emotional connotations they think it conveys - they want it to seem like Ancient wisdom that modern society has overlooked. And nothing is as good for mystical ancient wisdom as an old Asian culture.

[conuly]

The word "crisis" is made up of two words, "cry" and "sis". Thus in every crisis there is a risk that your sister will be upset.

*giggles*

I think they use Chinese because of the emotional connotations they think it conveys - they want it to seem like Ancient wisdom that modern society has overlooked. And nothing is as good for mystical ancient wisdom as an old Asian culture.

That makes sense.

[marveen.livejournal.com]

And nothing is as good for mystical ancient wisdom as an old Asian culture.


Yes, because the Exotic Orient is so much more conducive to wisdom than plain old European or US wisdom. *rolls eyes* I've read some stuff written in the 60s and 70s where the baseless adulation of Asia in general and the Chinese in specific was enough to make you gag.

[leora.livejournal.com]

I think it works something like this:

You need a culture that is really ancient in order to get the proper oooh the ancients knew stuff that has been lost, if we only knew what they knew we'd be better off because we'd know what they knew and still get to keep indoor plumbing and air conditioners.

Then you need to pick a truly ancient culture, and you don't have a lot of options:

Atlantis - pros: you can claim anything you want about it, cool fantasy stories, assumption of incredibly awesome secrets cons: you sound like a total loon

The Mid-East/Fertile Crescent - pros: incredibly ancient, you probably heard of it in Middle School cons: people don't like the mid-east these days

Egypt - pros: quite ancient, impressive pyramids cons: associations with slave labor, unpopular pharaoh as deity religion, mummies (note, this canalso count as a pro)

India - pros: ancient culture, cool art cons: nobody thinks of India when thinking about ancient wisdom or ancient cultures

Native tribes in the Americas - pros: lack of written records let you make stuff up, backlash against that whole genocide thing and the constant betrayal of the people by Europeans cons: guilt over that whole genocide thing, some of the people get annoyed when people say random stuff about their culture

China - pros: very ancient culture, impressive wall, reasonably non-offensive religion cons: modern China isn't that popular

Japan - pros: trendy, Samurais and ninjas! cons: too trendy, weird associations with girls' panties in vending machines

This is just a rough list, and there may be other pros and cons I haven't thought of. But really, it means you mostly want to stick to Egypt, China, and Japan. And Egypt and Japan both have a certain flavor of a particular kind of obsessive fanboy type, whereas China isn't currently popular in that way, so I think you can easily use China. At least, that's my best guess.

[queenlyzard.livejournal.com]

That list is awesome. I may have to quote it!

[leora.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :)

[peebs1701.livejournal.com]

I'd always heard it as crisis being the same symbol as the one for opportunity.

Not that that changes your point at all.

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

I always thought the Jack Kennedy vibes had something to do with it.