Words and Things

Both law and history are often about the relationship between words and what we can call reality. They are about other things too – physical evidence and artefacts and so on – but usually words are the thing.

One feature of modern politics is what seems to be a disconnect between words and reality. That the words used – phrases, texts – do not correspond with the world around us. They are merely tools of conveniemce.

Here, Trump is biggest culprit, though he is not the only one.

Over at Prospect today I have done a piece on “free speech” and “national security” and how such terms are used without them connecting to anything meaningful.

As a legal commentator (and history geek) I perhaps notice this disconnect especially painfully. Some observers may shrug, but it seems to me to be something which cannot be sustainable. There may be a crunch – a linguistic and conceptual equivalent to a credit crunch – where this dislocation will need to be re-set.

But until then we are left with something akin to a vehicle where the steering column and brakes do not connect to the wheels, leading to an impending crash which will not be a pretty sight.