The Collapse of Western Civilization

Roger Kimball has a nice piece in the New Criterion on the Orwellian effort to drain Western Culture of its distinctive character. One of the instances he cites is the latest revision of the new English children's dictionary which has removed entire categories of words and replaced them with new technospeak. It is not surprising that all words relating to Christian worship should have mysteriously disappeared, but why would the editors remove words describing the natural environment. Words like,

Acorn, allotment, almond, apricot, ash, bacon, beech, beetroot, blackberry, blacksmith, bloom, bluebell, bramble, bran, bray, bridle, brook, buttercup, canary, canter, carnation, catkin, cauliflower, chestnut, clover, conker, county, cowslip, crocus, dandelion, diesel, fern, fungus, gooseberry, gorse, hazel, hazelnut, heather, holly, horse chestnut, ivy, lavender, leek, liquorice, manger, marzipan, melon, minnow, mint, nectar, nectarine, oats, pansy, parsnip, pasture, poppy, porridge, poultry, primrose, prune, radish, rhubarb, sheaf, spinach, sycamore, tulip, turnip, vine, violet, walnut, willow

I must be getting old. None of this makes any sense to me.

Read Kimball's column here.