From: Charles Hixson (charleshixsn@earthlink.net)
Date: Fri Jan 04 2002 - 08:54:28 MST
Dossy wrote:
> On 2002.01.03, Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> wrote:
>
>> If I used [profanity] all the time no one would notice.
>> But the last time I did (I think it was "fuck the will of
>> the people") it expressed my opinion of public consensus
>> as clearly and directly as if I had said "I don't
>> particularly value the will of the people in that context",
>> but it also makes it clear that I think that's an
>> important point, and that I actually have some /negative/
>> feelings about public consensus.
>>
>
The following statements are examples of sentences that have
generally similar meanings, but that point toward different
actions in the future.
> Compare:
>
> "fuck the will of the people"
I have considered that my intended actions will be disliked by
many people. This doesn't matter one bit to me. (It may even
be a part of why I do it.)
>
> vs.
>
> "I seriously couldn't care less about the will of the
> people!"
I really don't care what others think. I make my own decisions.
>
> or
>
> "Who cares about the will of the people?"
The "Will of the people" is some sort of scam that other people
claim to know so that they can control my actions. Why should
anyone pay attention to it?
>
> or
>
> "The will of the people don't count for anything."
Are "the people" going to pay me for doing what they want? Are
they going to call me bad names? This "will of the people" is
totally ineffectual.
>
>
> -- Dossy
>
>
Now I have made some assumptions here. Without assuming a "tone
of voice" I can't really disambiguate the various possible
shades of meaning. But this is a sample of what seems to me as
the most reasonable actual meaning of thos sentence fragments.
--
Charles Hixson
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