The Progressive Dictionary: In Defense of "Global" Solutions

By Sara Robinson

Created 07/09/2010 - 12:40pm

What we need is a new Progressive Dictionary.

This dawned on me last week [1] when I spent 1500 words trying to explain that, no, the word "bureaucrat" was not always a swear word that carries dark connotations of suspect parentage; and that yes, once upon a time, we actually did used to hire smart people into the government and expected them to manage our public affairs in the public interest. And (even more bizarrely) we thought this was a good thing, until the conservatives came along and told us that it wasn't.

Writing that column brought home to me just how thoroughly progressives have been gagged and bound by the right wing's 30-year campaign to hijack every word Americans use to describe their political lives. For reasons George Lakoff outlines in the clearest possible terms here [2], we need to get serious about taking this language back. Until it does, we can talk about our ideas all day -- but we literally won't be heard.

In this, the second entry in our reclaimed progressive lexicon, I'd like to pick at another word that leads to all kinds of misunderstandings between left and right. The word this week is "global."