Thursday, December 05, 2002

A Word About Words

We need to get together and fix some words and phrases so they make sense.
For instance, when someone is being introduced to an audience in a business setting, superlatives are often used to describe the person:
"John is an ambitious, determined, uncompromising business leader..."
Uncompromising? Why is that considered a good thing? Sounds to me like John is a hard ass who lacks flexibility and refuses to listen to others.
Obversely, when someone is found to be doing something wrong, we might hear:
"She was caught in a compromising position."
What's wrong with compromising? Why does it get such a bad rap?
I wish some people in my life would be more compromising.
I wish some people in my life would be less uncompromising.
And I wish people would stop giving the word uncompromising such a good rap while discrediting the word compromising.
It's good to compromise.
It's bad to be uncompromising.
Just remember that.

No comments: