Bureaucratic Euphemisms

Left, right or center, at the very least, it seems to be human nature to take the edge off a concept. Often starting off as benign, smooth words are often carried to the extreme. As we belatedly come to realize, it is a way for influencers to implant their deliberate agendas to into our minds because we are too busy or uncritical to take notice, and thereby they imperceptibly implement their projects. Below is a case in point.

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Yours truly,Larry Greenberg

  

Bureaucratic Euphemisms

When word are the only tool you have, everything looks lie a word problem. This is why we so often encounter the euphemism spiral: a series of polite synonyms, each more abstract than the last, rolled out over the decades to describe the same phenomenon. For example: What once had been simply “bad kids” were fancied up as “juvenile delinquents,” then called “underprivileged,” then “at risk,” and then, during the Obama era, the triumphantly bureaucratic “justice-involved.” “Disconnected youth” had its day, and now the social workers’ latest term for this unfortunate sector of society seems to be “opportunity youth.” If only our bureaucracies were as good at improving these children’s prospects as the are at redescribing them.

National Review, The Week section, March 8, 2020, p. 10