The Limits of Language

In Nicholas Lemann's "The Limits of Language" he writes "To Orwell the connection between the English language and politics was that the debasement of the latter requires the corruption of the former". In other words he is saying that once the English language has been corrupted,the use of it in politics will leave politics in a degrading form. When that happens then no one will give credibility to what a candidate or politician speaks about or the topics spoken about. He points out "Bad writing is,unfortunately,eternal; surely there is more of it today, by weight, than there was in 1946". I am in agreement with this, there is far more manipulating of the English language now than ever, and the worst language is what most people seem to remember which lives on forever. Finally he states "To my mind, an even more frightening political prospect than the corruption of language is the corruption of information". I strongly believe this is true more than ever. In the age of the Internet there are a lot of people who have easy access to communicating a lot of information,regardless if they are true or not, which has a great impact on people in society. Misinformation can be very harmful when it is believed and acted upon as the truth, which happens far to often and has become the new norm. Unfortunately, just as Lemann states "there is often no corrective mechanism at hand, as there is in cases of the intentional corruption of language.

Creditors Scramble for College Students

Next year credit card companies must require co-signers for those under 21. ABC News had this article on October 5, 2009. These companies are scrambling to get college students to sign up before February 2009 when this new law goes into effect. Under the new rules, the Credit CARD Act of 2009 will restrict anyone younger than 21 from getting his or her own credit card, unless a parent, guardian or spouse is willing to co-sign or the underage person can show sufficient income to pay the credit obligations. The article said 84% of college undergraduates ave at least one credit card and the average balance is $3,173 the highest amount ever according to Sallie Mae earlier this year. Campbell says "it has not made sense that students with no job could receive credit and this law will help them learn responsibility." Mc Bride of Bankrate.com said that having credit is more important than people think. "it also relates to prospective employers, landlords and even auto insurance companies."