…to anyone who thinks meditatively about language, philosophically about words, abstractly about syntax and semantics, is “Abuse of Language—Abuse of Power”, by Joseph Pieper (who else?) and published by Ignatius in 1988. Pieper speaks from a political perspective, but his thesis is not limited to that one area of human concern. It goes far beyond politics to a significance more transcendent. In a little more than 50 pages, he says pretty much all that should be said to those persons who would use language for any purpose other than the pursuit and communication of truth, whether in speech or in poetry or prose, fiction or non-fiction.

In my years of teaching (I don’t remember how many—I think a hundred or so), I encountered a few students who were clearly accustomed to getting straight A’s for their writing, whose past English teachers had heaped praise upon them, and who were surprised and angered by the F they received from Ms. Hunt on their first essay of the term. In a quickly demanded conference, they learned that the F was removable. All that was required to change the grade to A was that they borrow my little book, read it, and write an abstract of it in half a page. The exercise was intended to teach them that as one reads for meaning (Pieper isn’t “easy”), it’s therefore necessary to write for meaning, that “how” is secondary to “what”, that language used to deceive, to seduce, to impress, to manipulate, is not right use; and it will always get an F.

In some cases, the little lesson “took”. Probably, in other cases, they faked it. I don’t know. Teachers can only teach so much. We all know that experience is not just the best teacher. but the only one. If that were not so, human history wouldn’t be as dark as it is. You could ask Eve about that. But for so many of our contemporary politicians and those who engage in public discourse of any kind, for all those who write “professionally”, and especially for those who must ride their personal hobby-horses through every piece of text they produce—it’s a good lesson to learn: Don’t get drunk on the sound of your own voice. The hangover is a real F.