Tom Walker wrote:
> .... I would be wary of
> the "common sense" of the word, which, like "popular culture" refers not to
> some inherent common sense or popular culture but to manufactured and
> commercially-promoted ones.
I wasn't appealing to "inherent common sense." Just because a word
has a common-sense meaning doesn't mean that that meaning is
"correct."[*] All the common-sense meaning says is that if you talk
to regular people -- i.e., those outside of pen-l -- and you use the
word "sabotage" in some other sense, you will likely have a hard time
communicating.
> Furthermore, my original point (and Veblen's and Giovannitti's) was
> precisely about CONTESTING the received meanings of such strategically vital
> terms, as dictated by the partisans of capital.
Contesting the common-sense, popular, or received meanings of any word
is not worth the effort. It's just the standard and pointless academic
game of arguing about the meanings of words ("You're using the word
'sabotage' incorrectly; what 'sabotage' REALLY means (as some
authority figure tells us) is that...") I'm all in favor of
definitions, but they are for clarifying one's thought, not as some
sort of appeal to authority. (After all, authorities are often wrong.)
That is, I'd say that "I'm using the word 'sabotage' to mean X, even
though this is not the usual meaning." However, it's good to realize
when one's non-standard definition doesn't fit with commonsensical
usages. If you want to communicate with people, maybe compromising
with common sense is a good idea.
--
Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own
way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante.
[*] No word has a "correct" meaning, since any meanings are
unconscious social creations. It's true that meanings are often shaped
by public relations efforts and the like, but the latter should not be
seen as having total power; PR efforts often fail or counteract each
other. It's not as if concepts are (imperfect) reflections of some
ideal form as Plato wold have it, so that our effort should be to
perfect the definition to match the ideal.
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