Wednesday, September 26, 2007

When Language Says and Does Not Mean

Paraphrasing our Vicereine, Michaëlle Jean, regarding her position that the current debate in Québec about reasonable accommodation is necessary, the following words appear in today's National Post:
Ms. Jean said Canada has to deal with the question because the world is becoming increasingly diverse.
No doubt, I think I hear you saying, the author meant to say "Canada has to deal with the question because its world is becoming increasingly diverse." Being that, you know, if we're talking about race, colour and creed (which we are) one, really, can only say either that a) the world is diverse, or that b) a particular part of the world, hitherto of a specific type of homogeneity, is "becoming increasingly diverse" due to an influx (from the static and unchanging larger pool) of different races, cultures and creeds outside its borders. The idea that the entire, self-sufficient earth is actually, of itself, still producing entire new races of men out of thin air seems a bit, well, thick. What?

But I sometimes wonder.

Did the hack's pen truly slip here, or are we being given yet another insight into the post-Created World's delusions about its own potence? It wouldn't surprise me to discover that, deep down, Mme. Jean was under the impression that she was among the very first to dare to sport a hue of skin that wasn't white. Or, that her progressive brethren weren't altogether certain that Jews, Muslims or Homosexuals really existed until they gave them their acknowledgment.

Alas! Would that we could even say that their breed of hubris was unique in the world, to give a dust-bunny's-weight of credence to this absurd notion that we are, miraculously, increasingly more than the sum of our parts.