Example Of Conceit

Heroes and our politics

They are and always have been men and women who stand in the frontline for a better society, a better government, a better world. These are not saints but political heroes – leaders dedicated to the wellbeing of their people. We know there are cynics and anarchists who don’t recognise the role politicians play in the development of human society. We have people who started off as heroes, committing themselves to the service of their people. But along the way, they turned themselves into the worst tyrants, the worst corrupt politicians. We have politicians in this country who started off with great values and standards from very humble backgrounds, but later turned themselves into the most arrogant, selfish, greedy, intolerant and corrupt politicians. We have politicians who started off with almost nothing in their bank accounts but at the end of five years or so in government, they had billions of kwacha, millions of dollars and a lot of property. How possible was this when the salary of every public officer in this country is not in billions of kwacha or millions of dollars? The truth is they abused their offices to enrich themselves. There are politicians who started off with very little weight, or rather thin or lean, but today, they have necks like a buffalo and can hardly walk as a result of overeating. But the people they are leading are becoming thinner and thinner by the day. What we are trying to say is that many corrupt elements, many tyrannical politicians started off as heroes of their people. Frederick Chiluba was a hero of his people in 1991. And the ending was disastrous – the hero became a tyrant, a thief. And this is what happens when principles are lost, when values are traded on the altar of political expediency. This is why we consistently endeavour to remind our politicians and other leaders that the exercise of power must be the constant practice of self-limitation and modesty. Whatever the attempts that were made and are still being made to project Chiluba as a hero, the man we buried the other week did not die a hero. He started off as a hero but he did not die as a hero – he died as a disgraced politician who had stolen from his poor people. One who steals millions of dollars from his poor people cannot be said to be a hero even if his corrupt friends tried to accord him a heroic funeral.

Which Word Wednesday: Conceit vs. Concept « filling my patch of sky

T our family gathering this past weekend, my brother-in-law and his girlfriend said they had a word quandary for me. We proceeded to have a delightful conversation about word usage and context.

Afterward, I mentioned it would make a great feature . . . and here it is.

This week’s Which Word Wednesday is pulled from a real life conversation my brother-in-law had with someone in which he was describing a game. (I’ve now forgotten the exact wording he used—sorry, Dylan!) The comment in question went something like this: “The director’s conceit was to show a darkened skyline . . .” The question was whether conceit

I was involved in round one of that discussion. Although when I was involved it was less like a discussion, more like a man trying desperately to defend his word choice. At one point (and in good fun) he was accused of being conceited for using the word “conceit” in that way. He couldn’t win. If he was wrong, he was conceited for trying. If he was right, he was conceited for not using the word “concept”. I feel sorry for families that don’t have word-nerd discussions at their gatherings.

Thank you for clarifying this, I will try to use conceit in this way going forward. Maybe by saying things like; “The conceit of this parable by Jesus was…”

Maybe you can help me with another grammar question? When do you put quotes around a word in a sentence? (example: He was conceited for not using the word “concept” anyway.) Quotes or not quotes?

Love the example—yes, throw that into a sermon and see if you get any perplexed looks. As for the quotes—AP and Chicago Manual of Style both use quotation marks for phrases and titles (direct quotes, dialogue, song titles, article titles). For single words (unfamiliar terms/lingo, foreign phrases), AP allows quotes first use (none needed thereafter) but CMS suggests itals. I prefer itals (as used in conceit in this post). I avoid using quotes as much as possible b/c it can be overused. There’s a whole site about that called The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotes —some very funny submissions! I also speak of overuse in this post . (One blogger friend commented on that post how she has started using three fingers for air quotes to kick it up a notch.