Posted on May 26th 2014

On Language - BMW: The Ultimate Running Amok Machine

By Alex Linder




[ The following is from a forum thread posting. ]
1) run amok -

We see this 'amok' misspelled more often than not. It's an illiterate age. People just guess. They think a guess is as good as a know. Who are we to injure their self-esteem by telling them they're wrong? If ebonics is a real language, then it stands to reason mebonics is too. It has its own rules, just like real English. I spell words however I want. And I report anyone who criticizes my edgy letter groupings as a hate criminal.

I thought of this term in light of the recent slaughter carried out around Santa Barbara. The kid who did it apparently has some Malay in his genes. Running amok comes from the Malays. Every so often, some of these normally placid Asians would freak out, and run around stabbing people. That is running amok. The BMW Kid began his death tour by stabbing three roommates. He created the better part of a dozen crime scenes before exiting terra firma. He definitely ran amok.

Wikipedia says:

Quote:
Amok originated from the Malay/Indonesian word mengamuk, which when roughly defined means “to make a furious and desperate charge”.[5] According to Malay/Indonesian culture, amok was rooted in a deep spiritual belief.[6] They believed that amok was caused by the hantu belian,[7] which was an evil tiger spirit that entered one’s body and caused the heinous act. As a result of the belief, those in Indonesian culture tolerated amok and dealt with the after effects with no ill will towards the assailant.[8]

Although commonly used in a colloquial and less-violent sense, the phrase is particularly associated with a specific sociopathic culture-bound syndrome in Malaysian culture. In a typical case of running amok, an individual (often male), having shown no previous sign of anger or any inclination to violence, will acquire a weapon (traditionally a sword or dagger, but presently any of a variety of weapons) and in a sudden frenzy, will attempt to kill or seriously injure anyone he encounters and himself.[9] Amok typically takes place in a well populated or crowded area. Amok episodes of this kind normally end with the attacker being killed by bystanders or committing suicide, eliciting theories that amok may be a form of intentional suicide in cultures where suicide is heavily stigmatized.[10] Those who do not commit suicide and are not killed typically lose consciousness, and upon regaining consciousness, claim amnesia.

An early Western description of the practice appears in the journals of Captain James Cook, a British explorer, who encountered amok firsthand in 1770 during a voyage around the world. Cook writes of individuals behaving in a reckless, violent manner, without cause and "indiscriminately killing and maiming villagers and animals in a frenzied attack." [11]

A widely accepted explanation links amok with male honor (amok by women is virtually unknown).[12] Running amok would thus be both a way of escaping the world (since perpetrators were normally killed) and re-establishing one's reputation as a man to be feared and respected. Some observers[who?] have related this explanation to Islam's ban on suicide, which, it is suggested, drove Malay/Indonesian men to create circumstances in which others would kill them.
Running amok seems to be the discharge of a psychic buildup in a form unique to Malaysian culture. The Rodger kid left a long trail of angry videos, so his must be taken as a variation from the classical theme.

I like that hantu belian, though. The evil tiger spirit that gets in us and makes us perform "heinous" acts. Useful in describing all kinds of actors and activities.

2) epicene -

This is an underused term. It refers to a sort of non-sexual hermaphroditism - having the style or traits of both sexes, just as the fermy (an alt-term for hermaphrodite) has both sex organs. The Greek root equates to many-common. Having what many have in common. Can be used of a noun that represents both male and female, as in teacher. But most of the time epicene is used to suggest something is near-queer - weak, effeminate, unmanly; an effeminate departure from an august old Roman. A style could be epicene. If the writer refuses to get on top of his material, dominate it, make it perform - that is, if the writer is weak and unmanly - the result is epicene. Notice how over time, as effeminacy becomes the rule, more and more names become epicene - common to both sexes. There aren't any women named Russell, yet... Epicene is a good way to slyly suggest someone's a homo, or imply he might incline that way. His style, dress, comportment - all can be tagged with this useful adjective.

3) uptalk -

This is the term for the Valley Girl ('80s reference) tendency to raise the voice at the end of sentences, which has the effect of making statements that would seem straightforwardly declaratory come off as questions. To some extent, this is just a peculiar speech pattern that got going, and why it began, I don't know. We do hear it more than we should, and all over the place. I do think there is a political meaning.

I recall reading a book about Bill Clinton. He was such an able politician, he could sit down at a picnic table with two people on either side of a question, and when he left, both men thought he was on their side. I no doubt mis- but closely remember: He measured every phrase against its immediate reception. So even as he's saying something, the able democratic politician, a panderer and pseudo-friend as much as anything, is cautiously checking how the person is receiving what he's saying. This may be why presidents speak in short three-word bursts, with frequent pauses for eye scans in between. They don't want to go out on a limb. They're like fat girls trying to say what they think the 'guy' wants to hear.

Besides democratic pandering, we live in an age full of witchhunters, thanks to the P.C. crowd. Most people live in continual fear of saying something Semitically Incorrect, or even merely controversial. This hesitancy affects not just the content of their speech but the delivery. They are signaling their willingness to withdraw their statement by the tenderly cautious way they put their idea forward. Their very tone says "I am immediately willing to withdraw my assertion and race back to firm ground should you object in any way to the idea I've tendered."

Uptalk is a feminine way of speaking. Among Valley Girls it may have evolved as a way of mocking; but when it's heard from normal people today, it's simply the spirit of the effeminized times. Think of John Wayne, how he would talk. That's the traditional masculine style. Flat, clear, short, declarative - strong - or at least in the form suggesting strength. Uptalk is the feminine opposite. It is the style that begs the response: "Are you asking me or are you telling me?"

In an age in which everything female is overvalued, female patterns become the norm. Men, even, almost unconsciously imitate what they hear around them, in an attempt to get with the times, to be seen as sensitive, or simply not to stick out. Women are much less comfortable than men at making straightforward declarations. That's an aggressive, masculine act. Women dither. Watch them ordering or doing nearly everything. They never get on top of it. That's sexual. Sex permeates not just their physical being but their entire mental state. They are naturally milder and less aggressive than men, although often more feral or vicious, but in their ordinary mind, they simply aren't as direct and masterful as men are.

Uptalk is simply the speech pattern of an effeminized and Semitically Correct age. Everything masculine, traditional and dominant is bad, and we're all supposed to check ourselvses for our privilege, and listen to unheard voices traditionally marginalized, and in general comport ourselves as passive vehicles to be ordered about by peer-reviewed geniuses and concavities and discoloreds.

Uptalk's use by non-Valley Girls is either imitative or a sign that the user is not fully committed to what he's saying, and will withdraw it should you object. Uptalk, then, is weak. It sounds weak. It is weak. No man should talk like that unless he's being funny. Uptalk to me always sounds like the conversational equivalent of someone leaning backward and sticking a toe in the water to test the temperature.

Uptalk was subject of recent article. I noticed one woman defend the practice as being sensitive to the needs of others. Sussing out their opinion so as not to offend them. Uptalk is a style that complements the eternal female biological need to be an accepted member of a social network. Uptalk, she says, shows you care about the feelings of your listeners. Uptalk does underline that you care about their response, but more that you're afraid of it. Simple mildness works better for women. There's no actual need for uptalk, it is very definitely a style. It is not a style, as many point out, that works in business or anywhere else that time is short and people need to be on top of things and know how to communicate orders and information in a way that compels attention and incurs respect.

Speaking in a manner that emphasizes you're not fully committed to what you're saying is the speech equivalent of not believing your own bullshit, and will draw the same lack of response tepidity or hypocrisy always garner. Hit the line hard, people, as Teddy Roosevelt recommended.

4) vocal fry -

Another Valley Girl speech technique. Think of one eye-rolling and saying "totally." It's letting your voice drop down into the lowest register and vibrate. That's vocal fry.

Here's a video in which a sweet pete vocal coach formally discusses vocal fry from a musical point of view.
Ep. 46 "What's The Vocal Fry" - Vocal Fry Trilogy Part 1- Voice Lessons To The World - YouTube

Now watch this girl attack it.
The Vocal Fry Epidemic - YouTube

(This is just a fun video I came across while researching vocal fry; it's an English guy doing 24 different accents.)
The English Language In 24 Accents - YouTube

- Rare correct use of enormity: "The enormity of this dirty business is staggering in its implications..."

5) defalcation -

Used in book about Lyndon Johnson:

Quote:
By defalcation of Congress on the one hand and Judicial usurpation on the other -- with the connivance and ready support of the Executive branch -- the Federal Government has been corrupted into a vehicle of vast and unrestrained power over the lives, the effects and the affairs of the American people. (A Texan Looks at Lyndon [1960], p. 6)
This is a term with a pretty specific meaning. Someone has a legal duty to guard the funds/property of someone else. That person is a fiduciary. If that person misappropriates the funds - that's a defalcation. It's a term generally associated, as in the use above, with someone holding official office. But the verb defalcate can be used for anyone who basically steals or in some other way loses or abuses property or dollars entrusted to his care. You get the idea.

Defalcating basically means stealing, but stealing of a particular type: by the person who's supposed to watch over the money or stuff for someone else. Hence, it's a particularly dirty sort of theft, as there's betrayed trust involved, it's not just some random criminal act.

Now, here's the word in action, made to perform in panoptic stereovision for your amusement:

Quote:
We caught up with the defalcating shyster in his third-floor office, shook hands with his throat until he defecated, then defenestrated the prehensile bastard through a glass bloodily so that he came to rest on the courthouse lawn no more than a quarter alive, while we rifled his desk and file cabinets for anything that might, as the spoiled-walkers say, improve our lie.
Don't try that at home, kids. Remember, I'm a trained perfessional.

6) transgressive/edgy -

From an article about the 20-year anniversary of Weezer's breakthrough album:

Quote:
The fascinating thing about Cuomo as an artist is that in retrospect, it’s clear he meant none of this as a joke. He filled “The Blue Album” with alt-rock songs that drew on Quiet Riot and Cheap Trick not because he thought it was funny or transgressive but because he liked those sounds, he sang about looking just like Buddy Holly because he looked just like Buddy Holly, and he really didn’t care what people said about him, unless they said they liked Pinkerton the best.
Before we consider this concept, let's enjoy a tasty Weezer warble:

Weezer - Undone -- The Sweater Song - YouTube

Wasn't that marvelous?

Now...to understand the meaning of 'transgressive' or 'edgy' which are related enough they are reasonably taken together, we must first understand leftism.

Leftists are mainly interested in two things:

- hating/witch-hunting normals
- playing cooler-than-thou with fellow cultists.

The leftists are The System. They refuse to acknowledge this. They can only see themselves as fighting the system, for psychological reasons. You'll see this in college. The students agitate against the administration. But the administrators are all leftists.

Edgy refers to something pushed prematurely. Leftists think history has right and wrong sides. They are the right side. All their positions are correct. It just takes time to bring the clods around. Anything that pushes history a little faster than she's willing to go is edgy. Edgy is, it should go without saying, a positive word to the leftist. It means you're willing to go a little bit farther than average, which makes you cooler hence better.

As for the other, leftists are at war with reality, without realizing it. Reality is the Great White Father they hate with all the juvenescent perfervidity they can muster, which is often quite a bit. Transgressive is anything subversive, another of their pet self-patters. See, the patriarchy sets up laws. How You're Supposed To Do Things. Daring leftists subvert these by...not doing them. Doing something else. It's childish. It's silly. But the leftists aren't minded to examine things with an eye toward understanding and appreciating them. That's the conservative disposition. They're interested in taking down fences and barriers without ever pondering why they were erected in the first place. Leftists are simpletons who believe people really do divide into good and bad, and they have not the slightest doubt about their own goodness.

Perhaps the most striking irony about leftism is the complete lack of self-awareness inside a culture that thinks it's built on it. Irony, snark and their exhaustion are about all leftists do. Except for the other thing. Which is self-praise, the flip-side of witch-hunting. The flip side of hunting and burning heretics is coming up with new ways to praise oneself. All their terms amount to patting oneself on one's back for being wonderful. For all their obsession with irony and what they call self-awareness, which is genuinely ironic since they lack it, they never notice this. That's the head-shaking quality at the center of illiberalism. They are absolutely in earnest, irony unthinkable, when they use terms tolerance, sensitivity,right side of history, progressive. They are simply preachers - but unlike real christian preachers, these post-christian preachers actually believe their own bullshit. Leftists don't grin when they accuse, christians do. In a very real sense it's secular-humanist leftists who are the real christians whereas the nominal ones have abandoned its heart and psychology, if they've kept its institutional form. Leftists are often smart, but they have a blind spot that is lot bigger than a spot, it's more like a sphere or a half. They are the moral equivalent of the kids who aren't Charlie Bucket in the Willie Wonka story. Everything is about them and their coolness and their moral superiority; never does it occur to them they are completely intolerant of an insensitive to anyone who disagrees with them, even though the people they shit on generally are pro-social in that they offer reasoned arguments to support their position in contradistinction to leftist religious fanatics who merely assert theirs and smear any resisters. It doesn't matter whether leftists believe in god or not, they are cultists. Cultists, as I define it, are those who must wall themselves off from outsiders who might not accept their premises because those premises are laughably, observably, demonstrably and measurably opposed to reality. Cultists are hothouse flowers internally, no matter how armed and aggressive they may be on the outside, to mix metaphors. In very large measure the snark and obsession with irony or attempting to be post-ironic is simple silence-evasion. Leftists can't stand being alone with themselves. They must always drown out their inner critic with music, even the shitty undiscovered-band tripe they affect to prefer, because they are snobs. If they forced themselves to do the honorable thing and treat seriously the arguments proposed by those who disagree with them, they might find their own 'arguments' (what leftists do is not properly described as arguing but as verbal warring) wanting. Leftists dare not risk that; strictly speaking, they have no arguments. They offer only smears and ludicrous equivalences they've bruited among themselves so often they forget how absurd they are to outsiders. For instance, leftists will claim that the state executing a killer is the same thing as what the killer did. They are not kidding or exaggerating, they really believe this. If some nigger rapes and tortures and kills an 11-month-old baby, the leftist will scream to low hell about how barbaric we are as a society for obeying our darkest instincts and putting that criminal to sleep. The self-love of this type is off the charts. Humility is foreign to it; unthinkable, really. It cannot conceive itself as being wrong, so it must experience all resistance as evil. That's wrong, but it works mathematically - if the premise is right. But it's not. The moment a man ceases to believe that he knows everything and has all the answers, his leftism begins to falter. He a step back toward the real world. Few adults are leftists because most people eventually mature. Leftism is disproportionately made up of foolish young immature people, particularly women, who are myopic and easily inflamed morally. The other big subset of the left are professional liars - interested parties; those with rational financial-political incentive to mislead others. Not just Hillary Clinton types, that's the high level, but the NEA types.

Rightists think leftists are wrong for reasons. Hence their eternal attempts to argue their positions with them. Leftists think rightists are monsters. You don't argue with monsters, you slay them.

Leftism is most likely genetically based. It's a strain within the white race which has been nurtured into an extremely dangerous viper by jews, whose leftism springs from, oddly enough from rightism: rational racial self-interest. Again, more of The Irony in which the world seems to be founded.

* * *

Well, for the first time I used up my entire word-bag, accumulated over a couple of years. But I'll be back with more warm bread and cold water next week.//

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