LANGUAGE AUTOCRATS
The Wide World Net has been invaded by language autocrats who tell us what to say and how to say it. These self-appointed autocrats do not suggest ways to speak, they command their followers, willy-nilly, to do as they mandate and rule. I was piqued by the titles of their posts: Stop using the future. Should we use the past and the present tenses only? Don´t study the basics. I guess we are asked to skip simple grammar, Don´t learn languages. Acquire them. This dictum might mean that we should not study. Repeat until fluent. Repetition is good, after all, practice makes perfect, but repeat what? Don´t say thank you. Should we kiss the person instead? And many more, written, spoken, and performed by language "influencers." Oh, well, O tempora, o mores , as the Phoenicians used to say.