The Pronoun Watch

"WE seem to have given up any pretense that WE take the interrogation process seriously or comprehend the value of keeping OUR options open."

Princess Neoterica will no doubt have thought of Themselves in the plural all Their life, for factional and hierocratic reasons that concern few less loftily exalted.

In the quoted sentence, however, one does not encounter the comparatively commonplace Imperial first person plural, but rather this pedant’s own personal favourite, that mysterious set of ‘we ‘ and ‘us’ and ‘our’ that includes neither the speaker nor the person or persons addressed. [1]

The seriousness with which Their Highness and the Commentariat and the Weekly Standardisers take "the interrogation process" is impeccable. So impeccable as to be positively terrorizin’ -- which is pretty much the whole point, nicht wahr? Palæocomrade T. de Torquemada might take lessons from these gentry.

Thus of the first two instances. The third is not so easy to classify. The ‘options’ are formally those of Uncle Sam, just as the supposed abandonment of ‘seriousness’ was formally Sam’s. The difficulty arises that the Commentariat, bein’ a private-sector conspiracy (once again: formally), is not in a position to possess ‘options’ the same way it possesses ‘seriousness’. [2] A fortiori the neocomradely community is not in a position to "give up" the two on identical terms.

However, Their Highness speaks only of a pretence of abandonment -- and therein lies a pretty puzzle for the schoolmen: Can a legal agent pretend to abandon X, which she actually possesses by tenure T1, in exactly the same way in which she would pretend to abandon Y, which she does not in fact possess, and would possess by tenure T2 rather than T1 if she did? (And would it matter that tenure T2 is not in fact legally available to her?) [3]

***

In a completely different universe of discourse, mark that the neocomradess does not even consider the possibility that her POTUS might be engaged in a little dezinformatsya hereabouts, with the whole "No More Mr. Nasty Guy" shtyk intended only to deceive and "soften up" the implacable fiends. ("Won’t Abú ’Irháb be surprised the next time he gets himself kidnapped!")

But God knows best what this administration is really up to.

Happy days.


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[1] It might in some contexts be termed "the minority report WE." Imagine Neocomrade Senator M. McConnell and Neocomrade Representative E. Kantor mutterin’ together sadly against "all the money that we [the Congress of the United States of America] have been throwin’ at undeservin’ slackers lately."


[2] In the vernacular this comes to roughly "If Dershowitz, Esq., did it seriously in Harvard Yard, he should go to jail."


[3] In the vernacular perhaps "Would it be impolite to laugh out loud if Princess Neoterica were to solemnly forswear the personal use of nukes?"