The Art of Saying the Right Thing

"I was watching this lady with a retarded child the other day, and the child did something very interesting. As a matter of fact, it amazed me..

You can't call the child retarded. Call it mentally challenged.

You don't realize you are being rude, but explain, why?

Because retarded has been given a negative connotation, and its use might hurt some child's self-esteem.

So changing the name of the condition will make the negativity go away.

Maybe, and at the very least, create a positive atmosphere and foster the child's self esteem.

You may not remember, but retarded was a name we substituted for idiot or moron, for much the same reason you use mentally challenged.

Yes, we have progressed. And continue to do so.

If these word changes improved the lot of retarded people I would agree, and play along, but I don't see it. What it does do, is create resentment. Resentment, because if I don't have the correct phraseology, I might not say anything in fear of being rude. That's censorship. I resent the mother of the child already, and I don't even know her!

Censorship is a strong word, unless you can talk in a socially approved manner you don't really have anything to say. That being so, you should be gently discouraged from speaking your mind.

So nice people like you can do all the talking.

Ha! Ha! So funny!

So people like me are isolated from the discussion by you erudite people because we have some form of insensitivity handicap that you don't feel like patronizing. Possibly because we don't evoke feelings of pity and superiority. Social engineering does not remove injustice, it simply shifts it.

There are many people who believe they are right in this regard.

You're right, it's just another In-Crowd. An elite. If you don't expose your feelings, or use the jargon of the group, you're an Out. Like fashion, it doesn't matter if it makes no sense, the group has the secret language of the coolness that they alone know, and if you don't understand it, you are a geek. This gives me hope.

What do you mean?

Fads and fashions eventually fail. Fads and fashions build upon themselves until the crooked blocks of contradiction cause the whole system to fall. As the blocks of contraction are piling up, the real cool people realize that the group has let in too many mindless mimickers and they get out. Remember the 60's? The long hair, beards and bell-bottoms became a uniform. The slow, 'whaaas happenin man' hippie talk became a caricature of the smoked-out dopie. All the sensate proponents of hippiedom cut their hair, bought an SUV and screwed their buddy to the top long before the dopie even knew the revolution was over.

So, what did the mentally challenged child do that amazed you so much?

I would like to tell you, but I simply don’t have the words to describe it."