But ya could...

In the midst of my exploration of the blogosphere (I won't even put it in quotes, as it must be a widely accepted part of our national lexicon by now), I came across a commonly misused phrase that bites the ear that hears it.

To quote our "local blogging icon" (and please don't take this to be overly critical. I enjoyed reading her blog. This is just a common mistake),

"While the media’s fascination with Ms. Hilton shares some of the blame, those of us who could care less, are having her shoved down our throats."

Please understand that the colloquialization of "couldn't care less" into "could care less" completely destroys the logic behind the pronouncement. It changes the sentiment entirely. Or perhaps not the sentiment, per se, but most certainly the meaning.

And in so doing, we are not clearly presenting our cases. Some might claim that "everybody says that," as a weak attempt to justify the mistake. I understand the metamorphosis of language as it is regionally affected and that contributes to the vibrancy of language as a medium. It is an indicator of a living culture of English, in this case. How cool it must be to have been the inventor of English and to see that it is still in good use after all these years and that its users have taken its development into their own hands, constantly creating new words and phrases as the culture itself develops. English is far from being a dead language. (What's Latin for "blogosphere"?)

As we of the "pajama brigade" (I will use quotes here, as I did not invent the term) clutter the Information Superhighway with our deepest and darkest, might we not, at the very least, strive to employ good grammar? Might we not attempt to raise our readers by setting a good written example? Putting something down on paper, having something published, even giving a speech used to require an expertise in language. A writer would not want to print it if the piece were not perfect. Her reputation would be at stake. The phrases "put it in writing" and "written in stone" evoke a weight, a heavy weight, given to the art or act of writing. Are bloggers as concerned with these aspects of a printed piece, when the material may be thrown up on the Web in an instant, only to be replaced by a new entry the following day? Do we think before we blog?

This acceptance and continued use of linguistic mistakes fuels the notion that education is not necessarily valuable. Now, I made a leap here. I'll link it with one word: nucular. If the (claimed) President of the United States continually mispronounces a common political term, with no apologies or an explanation that "everyone in Texas says 'nucular,'" then how can we, the people, be expected to correct those wayward colloquialisms? Bush continually jokes about the way he "mangles the English language," as if this were excusable because he's the "guy you'd wanna have a beer with." Bush comes across as weak (I'll refrain from saying "dumb" or "illiterate") when he fails to use his intellect. He's not stupid. He can't be. He is just on the Dumbing Down of America train, as some rationale for the poor record on education we have in this country. By acting "like one of us," he releases Americans from the drive to become educated.

I won't go on about how I don't believe education will ever truly be addressed in this country, but will remain an election issue. By keeping us uneducated, the government can maintain power over us. If we don't know what's going on in the world, we won't know there are other ways of doing things. Fast food, beer and football keep us complacent. Oops, I said I wouldn't go on about this.

I wish we could use the incorrect form of the phrase when we say, "President Bush could care less about education in America." That would be a nice truth.