Dirty word

Reader question:

Please explain this sentence, with “dirty word” in particular: For many young people, “hard work” has become a dirty word.

My comments:

“Hard work” is something you can’t preach to the young anymore.

To many of them, at any rate.

It’s as if “hard work” were a dirty word, something to avoid.

“Dirty word” is, literally, a dirty word, such as “shit”, “hell” or any other four-letter words.

Four-letter words?

That’s another expression for “dirty words” because “shit” and “hell” and many other swear or curse words all have four letters.

Other examples?

Only for the purpose of explanation, I’ll list a few, such as “fuck”, “damn” and so forth.

I don’t want to give more examples because dirty words are the words to avoid in print and in conversation. They’re impolite and jarring to the ear.

In our example, “hard work” is likened to “dirty words” because many young people don’t like to hear that word.

They don’t like “hard work” itself, simply put.

My generation is different. We, who are approaching 60, all believe in hard work. We believe that’s the only sure thing to get you anywhere in life.

That’s because, you see, when we grew up, we didn’t have anything going for us. Our parents were mostly poor. They didn’t have anything to give us. We had to earn our living, by working hard.

Today, it’s different. Today’s young generation have everything. They were born with a silver spoon in their mouth, so to speak. Unlike their grandparents, they live in luxury and abundance, relatively speaking.

Many of them, in consequence, are spoiled. They don’t like to hear anyone preaching “hard work” to them because they don’t feel like they need to do any real hard work.

They don’t feel like they have to obtain anything the hard way.

And I don’t blame them. You cannot expect them to understand and even enjoy the concept of “hard work” because all their lives so far they’ve got everything handed to them.

That’s just a fact of life.

Again, that’s a fact of life for old timers like me to grasp and learn from.

As for the young, they’ll just live – and, hopefully later, learn.

Let them live – and allow them to learn. All in good time.

Life itself is the greatest teacher. Hopefully, today’s young will learn that “hard work” is good work. In the long run, “hard work” pays.

Enough of preaching from me, lest I bore our cute and lovely youngsters to death. Let’s read a few media examples of “dirty word” in the metaphorical sense, i.e. where a normal, innocuous word or concept has in some situations become toxic or politically incorrect:

1. The word globalization has literally been used to death. The term means many things to different people, and has become so tarnished by what are really debates about social and employment policies that it has become effectively useless. It’s time to get rid of it, in name if not substance.

The term had a good run and, in a broad historical context, is hardly a new phenomenon. In a sense, humankind has been globalizing at one pace or another ever since it first walked the planet. To be sure, the speed and complexity of change may have become rather exponential of late, helping to explain the discontent associated with so many of the policies – like open trade, a business-friendly regulatory environment, strong incentives for private enterprise – normally associated with the term globalization.

Steven Weisman, vice-president of publications and communications at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, has written an important book exploring some of the economic tensions arising from greater commercial integration but also seeking, and ultimately finding, a moral case for the overall benefits of such policies.

Weisman and others, however, are quick to acknowledge that talk of helping workers hurt by past trade agreements make a transition to quality alternative employment has not been matched by concrete action.

This helps to explain some of the backlash against trade, and has fueled a growing sense among economists that so-called “trade adjustment compensation” may not be enough. Instead, a more comprehensive system of retraining, business incentives and even direct financial help in some form, perhaps for a prolonged period, may be necessary to cure the ills affecting a global economy that many believe will only grow tougher on workers as automation of many functions increases.

Adding to the widespread discontent: lower and middle-income workers in wealthy countries appear to have lost the most ground in terms of their living standard over the past few decades, according to research by Branko Milanovic, an economist at City University of New York.

People clearly have reason to be upset, to feel cheated by the economic system. The economy just isn’t working for them.

So if globalization has become a dirty word, unduly idolized by its proponents and unfairly vilified by its detractors, what should replace it? Maybe nothing at all. If the process is so obviously inevitable, then how often must we discuss it?

- Dump globalization: the word, not the idea, WEForum.com, August 18, 2016.

2. When you study the field of politics, it is represented as “the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status.” An accepted definition of a politician is “a person who is professionally involved in politics, especially as a holder of or a candidate for an elected office.”

Politics, if done well and honestly, should not be thought of as dirty and neither should the politician who practices politics. One can be an activist and practice politics without being a politician. But I find it amusing when a candidate running for office says they are not a politician. They may not have been one before they announced their candidacy, but once they have, they are a politician. I believe the majority of politicians in office, or running for office, are doing it for the right reasons.

It is because the term politician has become a dirty word that people are running for office declaring they are not really politicians. An example is the new Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. The headline in the New York Times is “Alvin Bragg Says He’s Not a Politician, Is That the Root of His Trouble?” In fairness Bragg says he shouldn’t act like a politician, which indicates he thinks being a politician is a bad thing.

Bragg, who ran in a primary and then in a general election and now holds office, is by any definition a politician and there is nothing wrong with that. Decisions he makes will be both political in nature and have political ramifications. Whether it is to prosecute, or not prosecute, Donald Trump; or whether his office will cease to seek jail and prison time for all but the most serious crimes, those are in many ways political decisions. They can be political even if based on the facts as he sees them at the time. The reality is on what appeared to be his initial views on both of these issues, he is now vacillating based on the political winds he is facing. He is entitled to change his mind, as can any politician, as long as they don’t give up their principles.

- ‘Politics’ and ‘politician’ have become dirty words, WashingtonBlade.com, by Peter Rosenstein, April 12, 2022.

3. Kemi Badenoch has promised to “renew” the Conservative Party as she becomes the sixth person to launch a bid to become the next Tory leader.

The shadow housing secretary said she would return her party to “first principles” including a focus on sovereignty and a revived confidence in capitalism.

The 44-year-old hoping to take over from ex-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak regularly tops polls among Conservative Party members.

She joins Dame Priti Patel, Mel Stride, Robert Jenrick, Tom Tugendhat and James Cleverly in the race to replace Mr Sunak. Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman has said she will not be running.

Ms Badenoch said the Conservative Party needed to focus on “doing some things well, not everything badly” to recover from their worst ever election result - which left them with 121 MPs.

Writing in The Times newspaper, she said: “My campaign is launching with an explicit focus on renewing our party for 2030 – the first full year we can be back in government and the first year of a new decade.”

…

Central to her pledge for “renewal” and “reuniting the Conservative family” is an unwavering embracing of capitalism.

“The wealth of our nation is built upon our historic ability to capture the ingenuity and industry of our people, and the willingness of many to trade risk for reward,” she said.

“It’s become a dirty word, but our renewal must also mean a renewal for capitalism.”

- Kemi Badenoch announces bid to become Tory leader, BBC.com, July 29, 2024.

本文仅代表作者本人观点，与本网立场无关。欢迎大家讨论学术问题，尊重他人，禁止人身攻击和发布一切违反国家现行法律法规的内容。

About the author:

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.

（作者：张欣）