The word 'assassination' derives from the murdering perpetrated by a Middle Eastern sect called The Assassins.
The very root of the word's meaning indicates the murders committed were a result of conspiring and plotting by a group.
I think that is part of why using the word "assassination" is such a TABOO in our country. The Power Elite/Oligarchy in charge do not want us Citizens to think too deeply on this national problem we experience each time we lose another of our leaders.
It would be a revelation for this nation to get rid of this TABOO. That said, I seek to make a positive result from Hillary's "assassination" word mistake, and suggest we not cave-in to pressure to keep the word 'assasination' as part of the Lexicon of the TABOO.
Can we please make some lemonade out of this most recent lemon/gaffe/foot-in-mouth/FreudianSlip(?) by Hillary Clinton, such as it is, and let it be this:
Smashing through the uniquely American TABOO of discussing the word "assassination" in a context OTHER THAN "WooWooLand Conspiracy Theorizing"!
I'm not sure who coined the phrase "politically correct"/"political correctness", but it seemed that the Rightwingers latched on to it and used it as a SHAMING DEVICE against liberals. And in that process, the Right made it look like liberals were incapable of conceiving of any standards of civility, civil discourse, etiquette, or acceptable social behavior whatsoever. AND THEN THE RIGHT TOOK OVER ON DECREEING WHAT WAS "PROPER BEHAVIOR" and proceeded to dictate WHAT WORDS CAN BE USED AND WHAT THEY SHOULD MEAN.
Perfectly sane words like "liberal" are now tainted so completely that only a handful of people are willing to take back their original meaning and USE THEM as everyday language apart from the new definition as pure epithet. And doesn't "environmental extremism" just trip off the tongue?
Likewise, shame is now inherent in using the word 'assasination'. This week we've seen that the use of the word 'assassination' is considered WRONG; it's not polite to logically discuss, write about, or pursue an understanding of our awful and CONTINUED U.S. NATIONAL PROBLEM with political assassinations, anywhere in the media, unless, that is, the discussion is referred to as taking place in the far fringes of our society where 'goofballs' theorize ad infinitum. But CERTAINLY NEVER IN THE REGULAR PRESSS, unless to SHAME those who've used the word openly according to its actual definition.
Similarly creating a no man's land of words, the Right set a new "ETIQUETTE" for using language such as journalistic reporting on US military events. This new "propriety" emerged during the Invasion of Grenada under Reagan. It was just not proper for Americans to see what the U.S. military was doing, so reporters could no longer independently serve as eyewitnesses for the American People!
And if the press ever gets to see what the U.S. military is up to again, well, the only proper way is if the reporter is "embedded". But certainly NO independent agent will be considered the proper choice (because independent journalists are such a problem and just not safe, and the Bush Administration seems to say "if you don't believe us, let us show you the statistics of dead journalists in Iraq!").
And Rightwing Bushworld told us that it's just NOT POLITE to have reporters go into post-Katrina disaster areas to report on rescue efforts or on the recovery of victims. And the BushEtiquette demands that the coffins and the wounded returning from Iraq should NEVER be photographed, and their families NEVER interviewed.
These 'mandated standards of behavior' don't start out as powerful social/emotional TABOOS; they start out as mere PROHIBITIONS. But when we are blind enough to accept these prohibitions without protest, or grow up with them and never realize that they are not really a form of legitimate 'etiquette' at all, but rather a despicable blackout on living-in-community and participating-in-social-discourse; and then, insidiously they have become TABOOS!
They become social strictures that LIMIT OUR LIVES AND INTELLECTS and TRIGGER EMOTIONAL PANIC when the forbidden word is spoken!
These TABOOS even reflect 'magical thinking' -- "if we don't talk about this, we will be safe", or "if we don't mention this it will go away", or "if we say nothing, it will never have happened afterall!" This magical thinking gives these TABOOS the power to make us PSYCHOLOGICALLY CRIPPLED with the Superstition of Controlled Speech and Propaganda!
And here we are in 2008, en masse aghast at someone mentioning the 'assassination' word. The knee-jerk reaction to the TABOO having been VIOLATED results in cries from all directions -- even from those in the progressive sector -- that the trespasser MUST BE SILENCED.
The a-word was not used on some website frequented by silly "conspiracy theorists": no, it was spoken and replayed on primetime and that is not acceptable no matter who utters the word.
Hillary's Rovian politics have really let us down and are rightly rejected. But isn't it ironic if THIS is what loses her the most prestige -- That she broke the Rightwing-created TABOO on mentioning a word that evokes our national problem with assassins that's been plaguing this nation for 150 years or so?!
Please, let this TABOO be shaken off and thrown away with all the rest of the Rightwing Sewage we've been enduring for the past generation!!! Let's let this event give us the right to openly discuss why our nation is having a problem and how it can be solved! A TABOO IS NOT A SOLUTION!
We need real discussion and problem-solving about American Assassinations and how to choose peace at home as well as abroad.