THE DECLINE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

I just saw something on my facebook feed that made me need a rant.

THE DECLINE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

personally I do not  use ”modern” language or texts speak (well okay I use ok.). I once got asked in a disgusted voice “what school are you from” by a child in a school uniform at a park because I hit my head and said fruitcake instead of swearing. But that's because I didn’t want to swear, because I like how I talk, because I don’t like swearing (and not always because most swear words are meaningless nonsense in the context they’re used in, not to mention insulting to female dogs and children born out of wedlock.) but languages evolve and adapt or die just like everything else and though I don’t use the new and maybe improved English language doesn't mean I can’t see the English language isn’t in decline, IT’S EVOLVING, CHANGING GROWING LIKE IT HAS DONE BEFORE AND WILL DO AGAIN.

And if I do swear it will be because I am using the full strength of the English language to convey my emotion (and apologise to the inanimate and animate objects I insult in the process.)

Scary Memories

The scariest thing i think about is that I don’t think I’d still be alive if I had not left school when I was 7.  When I was 7 I would put my head under the water in the bath and think about how wonderful it would be to not come back up.  But I did for one reason and reason only.  My family.  When I was under the water thinking about how wonderful it would be I always started to think about how sad they would be and I couldn’t do that to them, it would have been too selfish to ruin their lives to save me from mine.  Sometimes I’d think about how easy it would be to just step out in front of a passing car and never have to go to school again.  But I didn’t, I couldn’t do it to them.  I wonder how long I would have lasted through Secondary School though.  I really don’t know???? 

I’m in college now and happy but I never thought I’d be back in formal education.  I think that’s what brought these memories back.  One thing I’ll never forget, HOME EDUCATION saved my life.  Life doesn’t have to be about four walls and a desk, it can be whatever I make it, whatever I want.  I thank my mum so much for showing me that life’s worth living and for making it so.  I am so glad I didn’t make a stupid mistake when I was 7. 

One thing I can’t understand is how does a system prevail that makes 7 year olds give up on life.  It’s been quite a shock remembering it.  I mean how do you forget something like that. The Government is constantly trying to take home education away, anyone would think the system is like that on purpose.  If you are not likely to be a good zombie tax paying citizen they don’t want you anyway.  The system has to crush individuality.

Rememberence Day - A minutes silence

Let me begin with the fact that I am strongly against a minutes silence.

If we want to remember those who died at war then we must remember THEM ALL, that involves the ones killed by their own government for cowardice or treason because they did not want to fight and those killed fighting for the other side because if they didn't then they'd be killed for cowardice or treason, when if they go to war there's a chance of living. I think it's really hard to say what I'd do if I had a Family that needed me. AND yes remember the bad people too, for we must feel sorry for them that life in a world where the only solution to their problems that they can see is to blame and hurt others.   

So what I've just said/written (if we're being pedantic which i often am) is certainly an opinion but not a reason to be "strongly against a minutes silence" (just a reason to be strongly against war) so here you are; my reasons:

 

For me personally there is nothing to remember in the silence. I know to listen to others and speak for what I believe in; not to be silent.  Silences is the people who know what's going on is wrong but do not speak for fear. If you want to remember then don't be Silent listen, listen to the dead!  There are many letters, works of poetry and photographs from the trenches out there, so listen, talk, discuss, use language for the greater good, and never be silent if you think something is wrong.  SPEAK UP

A few links
 

 World War I Poetry  

Moden War Poetry 

 A Blog on War Poetry

Strange Meeting By Wilfred Owen

Newly discovered letters from First World War reveal how some British soldiers threatened to shoot German troops during famous Christmas Day truce  

Nazi fairy tales paint Hitler as Little Red Riding Hood's saviour  

Letters From a German Soldier in WWI to his Mother 

I finish my opinionated rant with a truly beautiful and terrible sad poem by Wilfred Owen

1 Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
2 Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
3 Till on the haunting flares we turned out backs,
4 And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
5 Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
6 But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame, all blind;
7 Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
8 Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.

9 Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!--An ecstasy of fumbling
10 Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
11 But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
12 And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime.--
13 Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
14 As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

15 In all my dreams before my helpless sight
16 He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

17 If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
18 Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
19 And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
20 His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin,
21 If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
22 Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs
23 Bitter as the cud
24 Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--
25 My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
26 To children ardent for some desperate glory,
27 The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
28 Pro patria mori.