Thoughts to you from yours truly - ( 51 ) - November 27, 2010

Thoughts to You from Yours Truly - ( TYYT ) - ( 51 ) - Misnomer ( 錯配詞 ) - Nov., 27, 2010

There are many words in the human language that have been grossly misused. Most of them have wrong meanings arbitrarily imprinted on them. Let me show you what I mean.

Logic is always treated as good but, in fact, it is neutral in meaning. Logic simply means being self consistent with no implication with respect to value judgment. For example, the question of how to ration water during extreme shortage in a desert expedition is an interesting proposition. Economic logic relating to efficient distribution of scarce resources will say that it should follow the law of supply and demand. The richest guy gets it for the highest price in auction while everybody else will perish. That is obviously inhumane and a heartless approach. Following things to their logical conclusion may not be good at all because logic is not meant to be good but merely a rule to make our thinking self consistent.

Another notorious wrong usage of words can be found in the use the term quantum leap to describe progress in their policies by politicians. As a matter of fact, quantum is the smallest possible jump in the energy level of an excited atom. It only sounds big and mystical and mainly because of this politicians use it to entice the voters to put them in power.

Other words such as equilibrium, efficiency, stability and the like are usually treated as positive words whereas they are neutral by themselves. Whether they are good or bad depends entirely on the context in which they are used. For example, a sub-optimal equilibrium in the economy would be bad. Being efficient in exterminating people like the evil Nazis in WWII is revolting. The next time when we use such words think twice before assuming that they are all positive in meaning. We must think smart.

在人類的言語和文字中，有很多字或名詞是被錯誤用的。它們被人們強行加上了些錯誤的意思。讓我為你們解釋一下。

邏 輯一辭，經常是被人當作是正面的意思。其實，邏輯本身是中性的，沒有好也沒有壞意思。它只是表示一樣東西沒有自相矛盾吧了， 並無正面或反面的含意。作個比喻，當在沙漠中不足夠水去分配時，應該如何處理？依照有效分配資源的經濟理論，就是以價高者得的原則去處理。最富有的人便可 以得到食水，而其他的人都會給渴死了。這顯然是沒有人性的做法。一承不變地去追求邏輯，並非一件好事。因為，邏輯只是用來確保一件事情，不會自相矛盾吧 了。

另外一個錯誤用辭的例子，便是政客常用的quantum leap或量子級跳。他們用作非常大的進展那個意思。其實quantum leap是最低限度的能量升級，與他們的用意剛好相反。只因為這名詞有神秘感和動聽，政客們便拿來吸引選民，希望自己取得權力吧了。

其他如平衡，效率，穩定等名詞，皆是類似的辭語，本身是中性的，視乎應用的來龍去脈，才可定其性質。但在日常應用時都被用作正面性一般。比如，經濟平衡在 一個不適當的水平便不是好事。或者，如二次大戰時，德國納粹黨有效率地殺滅猶太人，這便是嘔心的惡行，絕無正面意義。所以，下次我們用詞，必須三思而行，才 可用之得宜。我們應該擁有醒目的思維才是上算。

JKHC.