This is a semantic-linguistic discussion on the word "rationale" that I post because it points out the complexity of language. We assume that if we know the dictionary meaning we have nailed down a word, especially if it's the same in multiple sources with no sneaky alternative definitions.
This is based on a discussion today while walking our dogs with a bright politically astute man who was born and educated in Germany-about fifty years old. We have wide ranging discussions, and I was sharing a book I'm reading called "Golden Holocaust" about the carnage caused by the cigarette industry. I pointed out to him that the regime that sponsored the earliest investigation of the smoking-cancer link was the Nazis, but the damning epidemiological and biological evidence they amassed was easily dismissed after the war-- along with anything to do with that murderous regime. (actually we had no qualms about picking up on their advances in rocketry)
He was aware of the general cancer research actually supported by Hitler directly, based on the principle that to take harmful substances was depriving the Reich of a useful individual, and it was that which was unacceptable. It could thus be said that this was the rationale for such research during the third Reich.
Our conversation today was on something different, the illusions within our own country. We drifted to our own reverence for all things military and other American truisms, and then got onto how these are endemic and bi-partisan. At that point we drifted to what is called , Operation Iraqi Freedom" the official name of the invasion and occupation of this country. I told Huber that our rationale for this war was that it would trigger a spirit of democracy that would transform the Arab middle east.
His response was clear, "that wasn't the rationale for the war!" We each repeated our contentions and we seemed do be disagreeing on the word, not that the explanation that by destroying the dictatorship of one country it would change the entire region. I told him that the word "rationale" means a justification, an excuse for an action that is really a cover for the underlying reason. He said that he didn't understand it that way, and thought that I was saying that spreading democracy was a rational belief, based on the root of the word. It was this that he was disputing.
I then told him that it is an understandable confusion, but given his erudition I decided to check out the word in the dictionary to be sure I was correct. And thus this Dailykos diary and the following poll in the extended section:
Here's the full poll, and since I can't cover all the bases fill in one, and give an explanation if you want.
The definition of the world "Rationale" as used in the above example:
The reason for a course of action
The rational basis for a plan or program
Can be either a genuine or cover explanation
An disingenuous explanation for an action
A rationalization to give cover for the real reason
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This is the time to fill in the poll, and then return the discussion
More time
More time
OK now my comments and I hope to see others that follow.
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All the dictionaries give a definition of either of the first two poll choices, "the rational reason for an action." The closest to acknowledgement of my usage is one dictionary with a long list of synonyms that includes the word, "excuse."
I write this diary to illustrate how we tend to think that words live in isolation, that we can understand a message outside of the context, the purpose, the speaker and the audience. And thus, with the decline of reader attention span, and the response of demanding ever more shorter communications we lose the ability to investigate meaningful issues in depth. I see it as a real problem.