What am I trying not to say? (8)

Usually, we writers are busy trying to say something. But sometimes we are busy trying not to say something. That is, we are being evasive. Here are two quick examples.

Example of trying not to say something

We all know what cheese is: A food made from milk curd.

So, what is “processed cheese”?

“Processed cheese, process cheese, cheese slice (UK), prepared cheese, or cheese food is a food product made from normal cheese and sometimes other unfermented dairy ingredients, plus emulsifiers, extra salt, food colorings, or whey. Many flavors, colors, and textures of processed cheese exist.” (Source: Wikipedia.) (Boldface in original.)

My analysis

The purveyors of “processed cheese” use that term in order to insinuate that their product is almost the same thing as cheese. And they use a lot of words in the definition in order to avoid clearly stating that their product may contain as little as 51 percent cheese and a lot of chemically treated swill.*

Example of trying not to say something

We all know what justice is: Fairness. You keep what you earn; you pay if you harm someone.

So, what is “social justice”?

“The requirements of justice applied to the framework of social existence. The term has been attacked as involving redundancy, since justice is necessarily a social or interpersonal concern. Indeed, John Rawls’s magnum opus is entitled A Theory of Justice. What is usually intended by the term is a consideration of the requirements of justice applied to the benefits and burdens of a common existence, and in this sense social justice is necessarily a matter of distribution (see distributive justice). But the particular emphasis in ‘social justice’ is on the foundational character of justice in social life: we are invited to move from a conception of justice to the design of constitutions, to critical perspectives on economic organization, to theories of civil disobedience. In this way, social justice defines the framework within which particular applications of distributive justice arise. A concern with justification, with the appeal to just conditions of social co-operation, has been a marked feature of contemporary liberalism.” (Source: Political Dictionary.)

My analysis

The promoters of “social justice” use that term in order to insinuate that social justice is almost the same thing as justice. And they use a lot of words in the definition in order to avoid clearly stating that social justice is socialism.

The Takeaway: If you need more than, say, 25 words to define your topic, you’re probably trying not to say something. Stop writing for a moment. Ask yourself: “What am I trying not to say?” You will know the answer. I won’t presume to tell you what to do next, but I will say this: Whenever I actually went into print trying not to say something, I noticed that intelligent readers usually saw through my euphemisms and evasions.

See disclaimer.

*For example, the usual emulsifier is sodium phosphate, a chemical that is also used for cleaning sidewalks; the extra salt is often 40 percent extra.