English

Less Than Words Can Say

In Less Than Words Can Say , Richard Mitchell lets rip the most devastating exposé to date of our rampant misuse of English. A Don Quixote — Savonarola might be more apt — of language, he wages war on its perverters, from teachers and deans to politicians and bureaucrats, whose consistently overblown prose offers us inanity in the guise of wisdom. Mitchell's cantankerous crusade indicts government agency "chairs" for the intimidating and obfuscating "legalese" of their profession, obsequious grantseekers who supplicate foundations in time-honored cant, and aspiring academics who speak in the Divine Passive. According to Mitchell, this bureaucratic jargon is turning us into a nation of baffled, inept, frustrated, and — ultimately — violent people, and the public schools are to blame. For the past thirty-five years, they have taught children to socialize rather than to read, write, and cipher — the only disciplines that foster clear language and logical thought. Mitchell's alarming conclusion is that our schools are turning out illiterates who will never manage their lives — because, lacking the power of language, they can't think. Richard Mitchell was a professor of English at Glass

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