Now that we have the Hate Amendment to neatly complement Hate America, can a Hymn of Hate be that far away?
"You we will hate with a lasting hate,
We will never forego our hate,
Hate by water and hate by land,
Hate of the head and hate of the hand,
Hate of the hammer and hate of the crown,
Hate of seventy millions choking down.
We love as one, we hate as one,
We have one foe and one alone--
ENGLAND!"
Unfortunately, the passion of this message was somewhat dissipated by the fact that British soldiers picked up the lyrics and liked to sing along to it as well. There's a point, an easily reached point, at which overuse of hate becomes comedic.
People, it's an ugly word. It attributes motives that aren't usually there and adds nothing to collective understanding. It has its place. But it also has its more common misplace. Let's not write Hasslieds.
Posted by Alan Allport at July 17, 2004 06:30 AMFrom the second link:
I also find that most American's recognize that American-English is not the same as English, there doesn't appear to be an attitude that American English is better. This is a criticism that American's can hold against us; that many Brits are Language elitist, and this is bad.
At least misuse of the apostrophe isn't confined to these shores...
Posted by: Ben Brumfield at July 18, 2004 09:23 AMDisturbing how close that verse sounds to some of Kipling's more ferocious stuff.
Posted by: Martha Bridegam at July 18, 2004 06:54 PM