03 December 2009

The use of pronouns.

Sometimes people use the subject pronoun we in a way that is dangerously inclusive.

There are also the times that people use the object pronoun us in a way that is far worse.

Tomorrow I have to attend a meeting in which we will be told what is best for us.  Whenever this happens personally or professionally, I am never at ease.  I become filled with vitriol.

I don't think of myself as a control freak or someone who must always be an autonomous being acting outside of the limits of community. I don't shun relationships. These communities and relationships make us who we are, and more likely who we aren't.

But lately, I just wonder if someone could invent another pronoun--one that clearly implies that there is a subjective you within the declarations of a we (and by subjective, I mean the you who are subject to the whims and the desires of the we or even the us).

"We are looking forward to the wonderful changes that will undoubtedly affect us"

Translations

"We (and you had better be in complete and totally submissive agreement)....us(well, mostly you because the rest of us were the active not passive or subjective you in the We)."

Obviously, I need a linguist and quite possibly a therapist.

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