THE A WORD: THE FEAR THAT DARE NOT SPEAK ITS NAME
Logophobia is, of course, merely one
of many morbid dreads but the fear of words
or, rather, one in particular
seems like an epidemic currently
in the chancelleries and newsrooms
of the Global North, rendering the patients,
at best, silent, about the destruction
of two nations – one from without, one
from within, one becoming a pariah,
and receiver of bushels of stolen wheat,
one an object of universal pity,
where some are starving, plagued by rats and fleas
– and, at worst, being actively complicit
in self-righteous exceptionalism,
in extravagant conspiracies,
in multiple crimes against humanity.
Unlike the H word, for example,
‘Hypocritical’, or the M word,
‘Mendacious’, or even the I word
‘Islamaphobic’, or the U word
‘UnChristian’, it is the modern version
of the public shame of being branded
with a scarlet letter A, the new version
of the career-ending terror of being
labelled a Commie, the fear of being called
‘Antisemitic’.
