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From: "David Pike" <>
Subject: Re: [Kent] 1852 Birth Certificate - no father
Date: Tue, 6 May 2003 21:33:33 -0400
References: <5B4C04DA.1E7956BC.006A19F4@aol.com>


On Tuesday, May 06, 2003 Dave Dobbin <>
wrote:

> Unfortunately I must totally disagree with you. Your argument
> relies on semantics and Political Correctness to a degree that
> makes a European Union decree on the straightness of bananas
> look sensible. ................

Dave;

Thank you for your comments. You have presented an excellent example of an
'in extremis' argument in which you have taken my suggestion to discontinue
the use of the term "illegitimate child" and presented a 37 word
alternative. This alternative is, of course, quite humorous and I thank you
for the levity.

However, as a serious counter argument, it totally misses the mark. One can
easily attack almost any suggestion or proposal, take it to a ridiculous
and completely unreasonable extreme, and make it look foolish. There is a
widely held idea that if people did more physical exercise, they would
likely improve their quality of life. But if everyone spent all their day
on an exercise machine, the economy would grind to a halt and everybody
would starve. Thus exercise is a bad idea; right ? This is another
example of an 'in extremis' argument, amusing but of no substance.

You have said that you see no problem with the continued use of the term
"illegitimate child". You know what it means and you say that every other
"straight-thinking person" does as well. Thus there is no reason to
discontinue usage. Would I be correct in assuming that you also know the
meaning of the term 'bastard' ? The dictionary definitions of
"illegitimate child" and "bastard" are essentially interchangable. But the
term 'bastard' is rarely used today, except as an insult. The reason for
this has to do with the word connotation. Words do have real, if subtle,
meanings above and beyond their dictionary definitions. And these
connotations can lead to real hurtful effects on people.

Those two terms 'bastard' and 'illegitimate child' both label a person as
abnormal, someone quite different from the majority, and this labelling is
done for a reason totally beyond the control of the individual so labelled.
In the past, this labelling has greatly stigmatized some individuals. So my
suggestion has absolutely nothing to do with a simple minded concept of
political correctness. It is motivated by a desire to prevent real harm to
real people.

David Pike
Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada






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