Damn, I just love exploiting hyperbolic propaganda. IMHO this case of vandalizing a rare National Park sign falls more under the rubric of “choosing your battles poorly.” But the more I consider the action, the more pissed I get, and, as someone who is occasionally called upon to correct others’ grammatical and spelling errors, I have to say something.
Having spent a good number of years (ZOMG) studying it, I recognize that English can be a difficult language, but you show disrespect to both your audience and your subject when you don’t perform due diligence in your editing and proofreading.
OTOH if you think that the fabric of society is threadbare, held tenuously in place only by such groups as the Typo Eradication Advancement League, then please close the browser, power down your computer, and get a grip. Grammar nazis who take it upon themselves to force their particular pedantry on the unwilling and uncaring waste their time and give English teachers everywhere a bad name.
First, it insults the intent. Somebody considered it worth putting an informational sign in the middle of freakin’ nowhere (and got the government to pay for it! :-) ), in the interest of enriching the awareness of the visitor who, already amazed at the view, might just become a little more awed by an historical perspective that extends beyond the visible horizon.
Second, and more galling, it insults the substantial initial effort. If the sign had not done its job as an informational marker – say, it was dilapidated to the point of illegibility, or written in Klingon – then there would be no hand-wringing over typos. But you can’t assert an authority to identify and correct typos unless you already comprehend the written message. We should be astonished (or would be, if it weren’t so damn common) that any understandable communication takes place between humans, even humans speaking the same language, given overwhelming evidence of the profound pain and suffering resulting from miscommunication.
Before the unimaginative manichean reader accuses me of repudiating the rules of written language that ensure precision and clarity, let me just sneak in some defensive, self-conscious “of course I care!” And, oddly enough, I do.
Guess what else? The world is large, its problems are legion, and life is short.
So, where was I?… Yeah, the “choosing-your-battles” thing. Let’s suppose there is some thing like karma or doomsday. All else equal (because I like my eschatology with a twist of ecumenicity), If I’ve got to be evaluated on where I put my efforts, would I want the balance to favor encouraging basic, authentic understanding, however tough it is on the eyes and ears, or in picking the nits out of messages that most everyone pretty much already gets?
Your results may vary. But if the world goes ablaze, don’t ask to work my strike team if all you’ve brought is a bottle of white correction fluid.
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