The power in the words we choose to use.

In one of the readings that we had to do under the heading of "security" there was a discussion of the language used in the office, and area of the people who make weapons and nuclear war heads. This article called "Slick'ems, Click'ems, Christmas trees, and Cookie cutters: Nuclear Language and how we learn to pat the bomb" by Carol Cohn is about her observations of how people working at these weapon making sights deal with creating a object that will in the end result in the death of millions of people. The largest answer I got from her was language. These people use language that distances themselves from the realities of what the warhead will do, for example instead of saying people dead they say collateral damage. What I though was interesting was that Carol Cohn, a educated woman herself found that while using these words it became harder to think the thoughts that she had previously, before she learned to use this new language thought. This reminds me of our use of language in the work place and other, non-weapon related areas of life. We have discussed this issue before in class. That when girls are tough they are referred to as "having balls" etc. Basically to compliment a girl on being tough or smart is to say that a girl has masculine characteristics and the opposite it true for men. If language had enough power to hinder an educated persons view on making and using weapons then using it daily, without scrutinizing it obviously leads to supporting the notion that men are better than women.